


Gatecrash

by theWallflower



Category: Legend of Zelda, Mega man - Fandom, Rockman | Mega Man - All Media Types, Rockman | Mega Man Classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Crossover, Fairies, Fantasy, Friendship, Future, Gen, Magic, Partnership, Robots, Teamwork, Utopia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-24
Updated: 2005-10-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 10:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 63
Words: 182,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theWallflower/pseuds/theWallflower
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Link's world, the pendants of the Triforce are stolen. In Mega Man's world, robot masters attack the lab. The blue bomber escapes through Dr. Light's unfinished transporter and lands in Hyrule. Now these two must form a team against enemies of both magic and technology. Can they trust each other long to defeat the evil that threatens both worlds?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Beginning

`This story is in no way intended to infringe on the established copyrights and trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd. or Nintendo Co., Ltd. It is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended for sale. It may be freely distributed providing that no alterations to the story are made.`

`The characters and incidents portrayed and the names in this story used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person, living, dead, or otherwise, is purely coincidental and unintentional.`

`For your reference, today you will have: mega trouble.`

* * *

It is a time of science and knowledge

It is a time of wizardry and magic

It is a time of engineers and laboratories

It is a time of knights and castles

It is a time of harvesting the world

It is a time of harvesting the land

It is a time of the future

It is a time of the past

But through a course of events these two worlds will collide through a phenomenon known as...

 ** _GATECRASH_**  
by Eric J. Juneau

 _Chapter 1: The Beginning_

"Roll, can you get me another apple?" Dr. Light's voice came from the small intercom by the door.

The hum of the rod-like carpet cleaner dwindled to silence as Roll shut it off and leaned it against an end table. She approached the intercom and pressed the talk button.

"Right away, Dr. Light," she spoke into it. She would need to return to vacuuming after she had finished fulfilling Dr. Light's orders. Roll turned around and headed out of the comfortable drawing room.

This was one of the few rooms in Dr. Light's mansion that was meant solely for human occupancy. There was soft carpet, comfortable chairs, sofas, a wall-hanging from India, as well as miscellaneous decorative touches around the room, all meaningless and irrelevant to Roll. Even though her insides were made of alloys and metals, on the outside she looked like any other girl. In fact, her blond hair, done up in a ponytail, and her youthful appearance made her quite beautiful.

But being a robot she had no need for comfort or eye-pleasing decoration. However, her prime directive was Dr. Light's housekeeping so she had to visit these types of rooms often in order to clean them. The laboratories where Dr. Light performed his experiments and research needed little cleaning because they contained self-sanitizing systems. About the only times she needed to be in the lab were when Dr. Light spilled one of his chemicals or when he wanted to upgrade her programming.

Roll headed to the house's pantry using her house map program. This was another room frequently visited by her as she was responsible for cooking Dr. Light's meals, a far better alternative to the 'instant ramen' diet he ate before he made her. She entered the small closet behind the kitchen and approached the Food Rehydration Unit, which semi-replaced the large pantry area some decades ago. When food is dehydrated it takes up less space, so it could all be stored into one simple machine for later use. Roll had use for it now and activated the rehydration matrix.

"Apple," she said into the small speaker in front of her. The machine began whirring silently, selecting the proper food from the massive library inside it, rehydrating the apple to the proper specifications, and depositing the red fruit in front of the receiving slot.

A little red door pleasantly beeped open. Roll lifted the hinged glass door up and took the apple from the plate. As she reversed her course and headed down to the lab she realized this was the fifth time Dr. Light had asked for an apple to be brought to him. Her newly installed curiosity program became activated, creating questions and possible theories as to the reason he needed these apples. The primary purpose of an apple was for eating. He could have wanted them for nourishment, as a snack, but logic dictated that he would have wanted more variety than five apples in a row. Another purpose was in order to grow apple trees. But again, the patterns of Dr. Light indicated he had no interest in gardening, especially since apples were already being provided to him. She resolved to ask the roboticst why he needed so many apples when she arrived.

As the doors slid out of her way she saw Dr. Light working attentively behind a large empty metal circle about twice the height of the doctor. Beside the circle was a control box, obviously meant for operating the circle, whatever it did.

"I have the apple you wanted, Dr. Light," Roll said, announcing her presence. Dr. Light hooked his arm on the top of the metal console and hoisted himself up to see Roll standing in front of the door.

"Yes, thank you, Roll. Come in. Just stand over here for a minute." Light went back to tweaking and prodding the control box as Roll stepped up to his side.

Now her interest was peaked. What did five apples and a large metal circle share in common? "Dr. Light, what is this?" she queried.

"I'm glad you asked," he replied enthusiastically, "Not because it shows your curiosity program is working, which is good, but it gives me a chance to practice my explanation when I complete this invention and announce it so that-"

"Dr. Light," Roll interrupted, "You're rambling again."

"Oh, sorry, it's just that I'm excited." Light snapped his head to the circle before him and pointed. "This device is a new type of teleporter. What I'm hoping it will do is improve the range and localization over old teleporters. It should be able to bypass large concentrations of tachyon fields that prevent material being deposited there. You know how when Dr. Wily's robots attack I can only drop off your brother in a very general location. It would be very much quicker if I could transport him directly."

"I see," Roll replied, "And why do you need the apple?"

"Well, I haven't exactly tested it out yet and I need an organic substance so that when it becomes available for human use it won't disintegrate them or anything like that," Dr. Light said amicably.

Roll nodded and held up the apple for her master, all her questions having been answered. The robot scientist took it and placed it on a tool tray beside him.

"Thank you, if I need anymore apples I'll tell you."

Roll nodded and walked out of Dr. Light's laboratory.

* * *

With a stroke of his sword, Link deflected the spear headed straight for his head. He lunged forward and slashed the moblin across its protruding belly. The bulldog-like creature outstretched his arms in panic right before he disappeared in a puff of white smoke. Link switched his attention to the two remaining moblins behind him who were slowly creeping up. He grabbed for his bow slung behind him and held it in ready position. The moblins kept coming and Link fired two arrows rapidly at each advancing foe. Each arrow struck true and vanquished the two enemies immediately.

The intrepid hero wiped the sweat from his forehead and replaced the bow. Reaching for his knapsack he pulled out his canteen and took two great big gulps of water. His work done, he headed out of the woods and back into the open plains of Hyrule, his homeland. The forest was situated close to the Hylian palace so Link took almost no time getting back to his current residence. His boots click-clacked on the lime-green cobblestone walkway leading to the trellis gate. There was a yellow Triforce symbol painted on the walkway and Link stared down at it while waiting for the gate to rise.

The Golden Power, also known as the Triforce, was a remnant left by the gods of wisdom, courage, and power, after their creation of the world. It held the power to grant wishes to anyone who touched it, evil or good. After he had won it back from the evil hands of Ganon, Link dispelled the cloud of evil over Hyrule with its ability. Link wished for many things, all good and all restoring Hyrule to an order of light. Link's great deeds earned him an important place among the people of the palace.

As Link approached the castle's interior, the two armored guards nodded their heads to their great hero. He entered the castle and saw Zelda standing ahead of him, talking to a servant.

Zelda was a very pretty, young girl, about the same age as Link, with reddish-blond hair and gentle blue eyes. She wore a small amulet across her head and a blue and white dress. Her youth showed in her personality, but in no way did she let it prevent her from being an active political leader.

"Link," she said as she looked at his worn form. "Link, what happened?" she rushed over to him.

"Another moblin attack," Link replied. He coughed weakly from the dust he had picked up. Of course, he was no stranger to a battle-weary condition, and he was hardly in pain, but Zelda's doting certainly made things better.

"Again? That's the third time in four days."

"I know. I'm the one who fought them."

"You aren't hurt, are you?"

"No, I'll be all right."

Zelda turned and started pacing around the great hall. "What are we going to do? These 'moblins' never even appeared until several days ago."

"They always seem to stay in the forest though," Link said, trying to reassure her.

"I just hope they stay there. If they get into Kakariko..." The mysterious forest was directly north of Hyrule's largest village. If the moblins did decide to move out of their dark shelter, Kakariko village would most likely be first attacked. This was something Zelda and Link both knew could be devastating for the largest concentration of Hyrule's citizens, possibly destroying its greatest village.

Link breathed a deep sigh. He took off his backpack, which held all his inventory, and sat down on one of the red and gold velvet chairs adjacent to the hallway wall.

"Link, maybe you should go lie down or something, you look tired," Zelda said.

"I'll be fine," Link replied, "I survived getting the Triforce, I'll survive this."

"I'm going to convene a council of elders to decide how we're going to solve this," Zelda suggested.

"Good idea," Link said, "I'll be resting." _Recuperating_ , Link silently amended. Zelda zoomed down the hall, leaving Link alone with his thoughts. Who were these moblins? They attacked in packs of four or five, seeming to just emerge out of the bushes. They wore the armor of soldiers but attacked like animals, organized, and yet frenzied. Where did they come from? What was their purpose? Why did they attack? How were they able to get the jump on him so easily? The answers seemed to escape him, but he knew he'd fight them again before he had an answer.

 **Next Chapter: The Prophecy**


	2. The Prophecy

Roll finished the cleaning of the drawing room and moved into the next. This room was similar to the drawing room, but in here there was a large monitor in the wall for the Hypernet, successor to the Internet, where one could access all sorts of entertainment and information through linked computer networks.

Apparently, Dr. Light had left the monitor on the news page. It was currently showing a streaming video of an anchorwoman giving the top news stories of the day.

"...And the fifth meeting of the United Nations Confederation convened in order to discuss possible revisions to the Laws of Robotics.

"The revisions would allow for the selective editing of the first law so that robots may do work that has a low probability of possible harm to humans. Several nations believe certain provisions must be made to the statutes to allow for robots to do work that may cause harm to humans, no matter how low probability. General-in-Chief Rutger Gomez is meeting with the Secretary of Technology today in the White House in order to formulate a presentation to the United Nations Council."

"In a related story, Dr. Albert Wily, the leader behind the Robot Revolutions, is now being moved to a maximum security penitentiary in Siberia."

Roll's interest was peaked now. Dr. Wily had been Dr. Light's assistant many years ago before Roll was made. He helped design Roll as well as another robot, her brother Rock. After these two successes the genius duo created six more robots that were designed for various industrial work such as tree-felling and waste-disposal. Unfortunately, Dr. Wily went insane for some reason and reprogrammed all six robots to attack and take over various sects of the world. Wily attempted five more times and after the sixth Robot Revolution, Mega Man succeeded in capturing him and putting him behind bars.

As the news story about the doctor finished, Roll shut off the Net monitor and realized she had not seen her brother in a while. Perhaps he'd like to know about this piece of news. Roll decided that her duties could wait for a little time while she checked in on Mega Man.

After a time of searching through the manor, she finally came to the white laboratory room where she saw her brother sitting before a large terminal with his back to her. He often spent his free time in the computer labs rather than the house, because this was where he felt the most comfortable. Before his transformation he wore normal clothes, but now he wore a blue titanium armor skin. When in battle he wore a helmet, but now his unruly brown hair was free. Two jacks were plugged into either side of his head, in his ears, and he seemed to be staring up at the terminal's monitor, but the screen was completely blank.

Roll strided over to him and looked into his face. She saw that he had his eyes closed and was lying back in his chair, totally still.

"Rock?" she said as she shook his shoulder. "Rock, are you okay?" Roll grabbed the two jacks and yanked them out of his head. Rock jumped up with a start, waving his arms around and shouting excitedly.

"Aaaaaah! What, what?" he yelled and looked up at Roll. "What are you doing? You could have short circuited me."

"I wouldn't have short circuited you," she replied in a satiric tone. "What are you doing hooked up to the computer anyway?"

"I was listening to some music, if you don't mind."

"What kind? More rock & roll?" Roll asked. Dr. Light, in his youth, was heavily into all kinds of music and so he had a habit of naming his robotic creations after musical terms.

"No, Dr. Light suggested I try something else. Something called 'Heavy Metal'."

"'Heavy metal'? What does that sound like?"

"It's sort of like rock & roll, only with a lot more electric instruments and bass."

"Really."

"Yeah. Here, listen," Mega Man picked up the two jacks and handed them to Roll. She carefully injected them into her ears. The bits of information flowed into her CPU, letting her listen to the lugubrious tunes.

"It seems depressing, too." Roll commented, although she didn't have emotions she had enough artificial intelligence to react in an emotional way.

"True," Mega Man replied, "A lot of songwriters and musicians into this type of music took illegal drugs and often died."

"That's terrible," Roll said horrified.

"I know, but that's human nature for you. I'm glad we made it past all that nonsense."

The monitor flashed with an incoming transmission. "Wha?" Rock commented.

He accessed the communication terminal to open the connection. A police officer came on the screen.

"Mega Man, good to talk to you."

"The same, officer. What can I do for you?"

"I have bad news. Dr. Wily escaped from prison this morning."

"What?"

"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Roll put a hand to her forehead in exasperation.

"I'm afraid it's true. We were moving him from the Siberian CF, but he busted out during the transfer using some sort of explosive device. We have no knowledge of his location or intentions."

"I don't think we need to bother with finding his intentions," Rock mentioned. "Those are pretty common knowledge."

The officer continued. "Let Dr. Light know right away. We'll continue searching on our end."

"Thanks." Rock closed the connection.

"The finest technology in the world and we can't keep one guy locked up," Roll muttered.

"You go find Dr. Light and tell him the bad news. I'm going to make sure the security protocols are set up."

"All right," Roll said and sprinted back to where she was just a few minutes ago.

Rock pulled his chair up to the computer console and accessed the house's security program using the Presspad interface. The first thing he did was change the status to red alert. An escaped Dr. Wily was no blithe matter. The sign on the security gates would display that the mansion was currently at a red level, which meant restricted access to those on the grounds. Laser trip wires were engaged, sonar, anti-trespasser cannons, cameras, and an anti-teleport field. Basically anyone who came in off the beaten path would encounter a nasty surprise. Rock quickly scanned through each of the security cameras to check if there was anything suspicious already in the house. There wasn't. Everything seemed secure for now.

Rock leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. The chances that another Robot Revolution was on the way were incredibly likely. Probably not soon though. Wily would need a chance to build eight new robots like he did every time and send them out across the world's crucial juncture points, like he did every time. It was no wonder Rock could always beat him.

Suddenly the ground vibrated roughly as he heard a muffled explosion. Red lights flashed through the room as a siren erupted in the halls.

"What th'?" Rock yelled.

He pulled up the security cameras to see what was happening. At the front door camera he saw exactly what he didn't want to see.

The entire front wall of the house was destroyed, collapsed into rubble. A gigantic silver round robot-tank was plodding through the living room, breaking up the floor's tiles where it stepped with its huge titanium feet.

On its stomach was a big stylized 'W'.

* * *

Zelda looked out of the window, gazing out at the beautiful countryside. It was amazing how much progress had been made since Ganon's coming and his near destruction of their precious land. His soldiers ravaged the landscape, the imbalance of evil and good combined with the disappearance of the Triforce wreaked havoc on the weather, the land, and the animals, making the whole land barely habitable. Thieves ran amok through the country, hiding in caves and forests waiting for an unsuspecting passerby to cross their paths. But now, with the recovery of the Triforce and the return of the king, Hyrule was once again a land of prosperity.

"So what am I going to do, Impa?" she said as she looked out.

A woman with long, white hair and a haggard, kind face replacing Zelda's bed sheets replied. "Oh, my dear, don't ask me. The only things I know how to do are wash socks and cure a fever." Impa had been Zelda's nursemaid ever since the princess was born.

"You know more than that, Impa." Zelda shied away from the windows. "You've helped me through some of my most difficult times when I was growing up."

Impa stopped folding the sheets of the bed for a moment and looked out into space with a dreamy gaze. "Ahh, you were such a precious little thing when you were young. I remember the time you ran around all the castle hallways without any clothes on."

"Impa!" Zelda said, obviously embarrassed.

"You were taking your bath and I turned to get the soap, and you jumped out and-"

"Impa, that's enough!" she exclaimed, smiling.

knock, knock, knock "Princess Zelda, Princess Zelda!" Impa opened the door, a pageboy burst in, looking exasperated. "Princess Zelda, the three pendants are missing!"

"What!"

The three pendants were the key to unlocking the Master Sword, a sacred weapon forged centuries ago to repulse the powers of evil. When Link had vanquished all his foes and restored the land he put the sword back in its secret place in the lost forest, where it would sleep forever.

"Oh my goodness, what shall we do, what shall we do, we're doomed, we're all doom-" Impa threw up her hands and ran around in circles.

"Calm down, Impa," Zelda said. She was worried too, but she composed herself. "Show me."

At the vault, the doors were open and two people were scouting the vault room. One was the royal investigator searching the floor for clues of a physical nature. The other was a magician, detecting traces of magic energy. Ganymede Noktwor, one of the royal advisors, came up to Zelda. He was a foot taller than her and sported clearly defined features and a long thin mustache. "I took the liberty of ordering a full investigation as soon as I heard the news."

"Well done. Have they found anything yet?"

"Ow," the detective said as he bumped his head on the table. The vizier looked with disdain and turned back to Zelda.

"Unfortunately, our investigative team is somewhat lacking."

"What...?"

"These two are only apprentices. Our wizard has Mountain Flu and the investigator general is on sabbatical."

A fine time, Zelda thought. "All right, let's think about this."

"Dear Zelda, perhaps the Seer shall shed some light on our dilemma," Impa piped up.

Zelda thought for a while about this. The Seer was the royal fortune teller. There were several throughout the kingdom, but the Seer was the one who had shown enough accuracy in his prophecies to be appointed to the service of the royal family. Since Zelda had no other ideas, she thought it would be the best thing to do.

"All right. Find Link, wherever he is. Tell him the news and tell him to come to the Seer with me," she said to Noktwor.

The man quickly bowed his head and hustled off to find him.

Zelda started off to where the fortune teller's keep in the palace was. "Fantastic, first we have a group of monsters terrorizing the people and now this."

"Just don't say 'what else can go wrong'," Impa suggested.

Moments later, Link and Zelda met in the Seer's chamber. It was filled with dusty, old, crumbling books on two walls. A ratted, red curtain blocked their view of the back wall. In assorted areas around the room, there were beakers and jars filled with colorful liquids, and in some cases, animal body parts. Link inspected a bottle bubbling with red potion while waiting. In the middle of the room was the Seer's crystal ball, his chief tool of his trade.

All this was quite familiar to Link. In his quest to save the Triforce he visited many of the fortune tellers in Hyrule for suggestions and directions when he was first starting out. All their buildings looked pretty much the same.

"So where is he?" Link asked.

"Right here," a voice behind them said. Zelda jumped a little from the startling words of the Seer.

"There you are," Link said.

"Oh, yes. I am here. You can always find me here. Here is where we are, and here is where we stay," the foreteller said as he scuttled across the room to his crystal ball. He was a small man, wearing a large hooded robe that cloaked his face in shadow. His long train dragged across the floor. When he moved he made little jerky steps like his feet were tied together. "Now, the problem, always a problem when you come to see me, yes, yes, got to go, got to solve the problem. What's the problem?"

Link looked at Zelda and then at the Seer. "The pendants of the Master Sword are missing."

If the Seer's head hadn't obscured their view, Link and Zelda would have seen his face light up.

"Oooooh, the prophecy of the three pendants. The blade of evil's bane. I was hoping this I would see before I passed on. Yes, the three pendants," The Seer jumped up from his crystal ball and scurried over to the bookcase, fingering the ancient library.

"What is the prophecy of the three pendants? I thought all the prophecies were resolved when Link recovered the Triforce," Zelda asked.

"The future, the future is always changing, always forming. Never is it written in stone." He finally found the volume he was looking for and plucked it out of the rack. "A-ha, here it is," he said flipping through the pages. "The prophecy of the pendants of the Master Sword," he read, "And it shall come to pass - the pendants shall vanish from the hands of the good, and he shall quest for them. And it is written, that the Hero of Cataclysm's Eve shall be joined by a man of metal, with an arm of light, and this man shall not be of this world and he will befriend the Hero, and together, the two will face many dangers... yadda, yadda, yadda," the Seer finished as he slammed the book shut, creating a puff of dust. "You get the picture."

"A man of metal with an arm of light," Zelda wondered aloud.

"Sounds like fun. Where do I start?" Link said.

"Start, got to start, every journey begins with a single step, single step. We must use the crystal ball. The ball will tell us, the ball will show us the way," the Seer answered as he scooted over to the central table.

Zelda was beginning to wish she'd appointed a more coherent fortune teller.

"All right," he said as he sat down to the bluish orb resting on a cushion surrounded by candles. "Let's see what we can see," he began to wave his hands over the ball. "I see, I see leaves... and shadows... leaves and shadows, shadows and leaves, grass, logs, trees..."

"The forest," Link said.

"Bingo! You win the jackpot!" the Seer responded.

"So the quest begins in the mysterious forest," Zelda said as she stood.

"I'll begin packing right away," Link said. The two stood up and began to walk out, "Thank you very much for your insight."

"Oh wait," the Seer interrupted, "I will now take fifteen of your rupees."

 **Next Chapter: Rabbit Hole**


	3. Rabbit Hole

"No way!" Rock exclaimed, "No way Wily could have made it all the way to here from Siberia in that short amount of time." He pounded his fist on the table.

Wily's tank advanced over the concrete debris, swinging his tank's robotic arms, demolishing the house with each step. Rock could almost hear his maniacal laughter from the console. He hadn't the time to comprehend how or why this was happening, only that it was time to do his duty.

Rock activated the comm system on the computer, "Roll, we've got big trouble. Get Dr. Light down to safety right now!"

"What's happening? What was that tremor?" came her disembodied voice.

"It's Wily. No time for details, just get him to the underground shelter right now."

"OK." Click.

Rock jumped up from the chair and sped off to the robot lab.

The lab had various utilities that Light used to improve his humanoid robots, but this lab was special to Rock, because it was where he was changed into Mega Man, and where all his subsequent upgrades were made.

The only upgrade Rock needed right now though was his helmet. It was based on an old war bomber helmet, colored blue, with two metallic receptors covering his ears. He grabbed it from a table and fastened it over his head. Now he was truly Mega Man.

The blue bomber checked his Mega Buster - it was at full power, though there was nothing in his weapon inventory. But he had the home court advantage and the assistance of his battle robots Dr. Light created for him.

Now would be an excellent time for Rush, he thought. Mega Man activated Rush's call and a red dog appeared before him. Rush was created to be Mega Man's friend and multi-purpose transportation as he used a special transformation chip to change into a variety of vehicles, including a submarine and a suit of armor.

"Jet, Rush," Mega Man commanded. The smiling, panting Rush tucked in his legs and flattened his back and in no time had changed to a jet sled. Mega Man stepped on top of Rush's platform back.

"Let's go!" Mega Man yelled. Rush zoomed off into the halls. The flares from his tailpipe lit the hallways amid the circling red sirens. As he neared the front of the building he could hear Wily's tank destroying his home, creating vibrations in the air.

Mega Man burst out of the tunnel at full speed and climbed in altitude. The bright light of day shone down on him from the open air now surrounding the living room. Wily's tank had already demolished a large chunk of their home. Open floors were visible, walls torn off.

Wasting no time, Mega Man began firing at the robot tank. The plasma bursts hit the armor with an ineffective clink and reflected away harmlessly. The entire machine was made out of litanium - plasma proof armor. Mega Man's blaster would be completely ineffective.

But there was always a weakness, there had to be. Some part of the machine had to be vulnerable, usually it was some sort of crystal-like outcropping. Mega Man flew his jet around the robot's circumference, looking for some sort of weak point, shooting at likely places. The slow tank rotated with Mega Man, tracking him. "Grrr," Mega Man exclaimed, not finding anything. "Come on, Wily. Show yourself!"

The armored bubble on top of the robot slid away, revealing Wily in his control booth, furiously pounding at buttons and levers. "Good to see you again, blue bomber," Dr. Wily's voice boomed over a loudspeaker in the tank.

"Yeah, same to you," Mega Man leveled his buster at Wily and fired a charged shot. The blast diffused harmlessly.

"Ha ha ha ha ha..." Wily laughed maniacally. "Anything else you'd like to try?" Wily turned the robot to face Mega Man. "How do you like my new robot design? State of the art armor. Not a weak point anywhere."

"There's always a weak point, Wily. Always."

"Ho ho ho ho... is that what you think? Sorry, not this time, little blue man. I decided instead of waiting for you to come to me, I'd take the bull by the horns."

"Bad choice, Wily. Now you're on my turf, and you're not getting away. Not in that turtle of a robot."

"Ah, but guess what? This robot is not an attack weapon. It's a transport carrier!"

The stomach of the robot burst open and five robot masters poured out - Shadow Man, Elec Man, Magnet Man, Gemini Man, and Gravity Man.

"He's mine!" Magnet Man shouted. The speeding robot jumped like a rocket and fired a trio of magnet missiles from his arm. Mega Man maneuvered Rush out of the way just in time and fired a powered-up buster shot. The shot impacted on Magnet Man's armor and just fizzled out. He fired again and Magnet Man just laughed as the shots dissipated away.

"How do you like my shield, Mega-moron?" Magnet Man said. Mega Man fired at Gemini Man behind him, resulting in the same effect. Mega Man couldn't believe it. Had Dr. Wily invented something he couldn't defeat? No way, he thought, every opponent has a weakness. Mega Man maneuvered Rush to flank Magnet Man and leapt off, tackling him. Both tumbled to the ground and rolled to a broken section of the wall as Wily's robot-tank crashed its arm down, trying to smash the little blue robot. They rolled to a corner and Mega Man landed a right cross on Magnet Man's face. On a robot, this was like pounding sand, but it turned his head for a moment so that Mega Man could grab a broken off girder and drop it on Magnet Man's head. The robot master began to flail his arms around, trying to get it off.

 _So the shields are only good against plasma shots_ , he thought. Mega Man jumped off and called back to Rush. Now all the robots began firing their weapons - lasers, missiles, and plasma. He narrowly missed their concentrated onslaught as Rush flew him out of danger back into the house.

"Thanks Rush, I'll get you an extra dog biscuit after this, if we survive."

"Woof," Rush barked in acknowledgment as he zoomed through the corridor, sloping downwards. The blue robot twisted his head and saw all the robots trailing after him. Elec Man was ahead of them, jumping great distances, but limited by the ceiling of the corridor.

"Not zo fazt, Mega Man," Elec Man buzzed.

"Hurry, Rush, try to lose them." Rush barked compliantly and flew left. "Get into that lab, Rush. I've got an idea," Mega Man commanded. The robo-dog pushed his afterburners to the limit. Mega Man knew Rush's power had to be low by now, but he had confidence in his companion. Elec Man was right behind them.

Mega Man flew into the lab and jumped off Rush. He twisted his body around in mid-air and shot out the door panel. Elec Man jumped through the hall and landed in the middle of the doorway. Suddenly, the titanium emergency door came dropping down like a guillotine. He was crushed under the weight and exploded in flashes of energy shooting out.

"Yes! He's hot tonight!" Mega Man exclaimed. He jumped up and spread his arms out. The energy spheres returned and became absorbed through the robot's armor. Mega Man's weapon copy system analyzed Elec Man's weapon - the thunder beam - and added it to the inventory.

It wasn't over yet though. The other robots were on the other side of the wall and began firing on the emergency door. Punch marks started protruding out.

"Better get out of here, Rush," Mega Man said. "I'll call you when I need you."

Rush whimpered, not wanting to follow this order.

"Go! Go to safety," Mega Man commanded. Rush whimpered one final time and teleported away.

Mega Man grimaced. The door was strong, but it wouldn't hold against the combined strength of six robots, and especially not when Wily's tank arrived. The emergency doors began shutting down around him, trapping him in the room.

"Isn't there something I can use?" Rock exclaimed, darting his head around searching for something to reinforce the door or some decoy battle robots he could use. He noticed a large metal circle in the middle of the room attached to a control panel.

"What's this?" Mega Man looked at the control panel, shrugged, and pressed 'on'.

The inside of the circle lit up. Sparkling black and gold filled the space before him, bulging and swelling like waves. Mega Man reached out with a finger and touched the force field, it rippled slightly from the sensation and gave way. It wasn't coming out the other side, he noticed.

An explosion rocked the lab as the door blew out. "Heeeeeeere's Johnny," Shadow Man said.

"No time for answers," Mega Man said as he glanced back at the force field. Mustering his strength he jumped through. The screen rippled outward and Mega Man disappeared.

Gemini Man entered the lab, brushing away the smoke. "Hey, where'd he go?"

* * *

Link set the bulky backpack on the bed. He turned back to his closet and began rummaging for things to bring on his quest: a few magic bottles, his boomerang, a lantern, a sack for magic powder, the fire rod and ice rod, and the invaluable hookshot, of course. Going out into a dangerous place like Hyrule's country meant bringing many weapons, but the space in his backpack was limited. He also had to bring food, clothing, and other life necessities.  
knock, knock Link whirled around and saw Zelda behind him. "Packing so soon?" Zelda said.

"There's no time like now," he replied.

"You've got all the provisions you need?"

"Oh, yeah. But I'll probably get more along the way. I always do."

Pause.

"Are you going to be coming back to the castle at all?"

"Probably. I never quite know what to expect on my quests. That's where the fun of it is."

"I suppose so."

"You seem kind of nervous about this."

"Well, adventures always entail some kind of risk."

"No, I mean you seem so down. You must have come in here for something."

"No, no reason."

There was a reason. Zelda cared very much for Link's safety. Whenever he ventured out into Hyrule, she worried, but she would never let Link know that. He would probably chide her for being nervous.

Link hooked the stout backpack under his arms. "Well, I guess I'm ready."

"I thought about giving you a grand parade to see you off."

"Oh, please, no, don't do that."

"I didn't, I decided against it."

"Good, I hate huge parties and galas where I'm the center of attention."

"Well, come on. Finding the Triforce did warrant a huge celebration."

"I guess that was a good exception." Link attached his bag to his belt. "I'm off." Link cleanly exited the room, leaving Zelda alone.

Once outside, Link took one more look back at the palace before turning away. His path led him around the castle to the northwest, over gentle hills and dales, through a sparse grove of trees, and upward to the border of the forest. Green pastures and tall fields of grass littered the way. Link cut through the tall grass with his sword to clear the way. These quests had been a lot more interesting when monsters were prevalent throughout the land. During Agahnim's reign, the evil energy let beasts roam the land freely, made more fearsome by magic. Now there were but a scant few hiding in holes. Entering through the archway of trees he looked skyward. The upper canopy blocked the dwindling sunlight, creating an evening feel, except for spots of uncovered sky. Squirrels and woodland creatures skittered about. The mysterious forest was a much more peaceful happy place now.

Suddenly, Link felt a tap of wood on his shoulder. He quickly turned around and saw a wizzrobe was standing behind him, holding a cane up.

Link's battle mode instinctively switched on, he unsheathed his sword and was ready to come straight down when the wizzrobe shrank back and said "Don't hurt me, I'm only an old woman."

It wasn't a wizzrobe, Link realized, just her dressings made her look like one. Link dropped his sword and resheathed it.

"What are you doing out here in the forest?"

"I was out gathering water for my family and got sidetracked," she replied in a crinkly, weathered voice. "What fortune finds you here?"

"I'm on a quest to find a lost treasure."

The old lady lifted up her hood to get a better look.

"No, it couldn't be, the Hero of Hyrule, oh, in my presence."

Link subtly rolled his eyes back. He liked attention, but when people started revering him like he was a god, then the feeling lost its shine quickly.

"You must come back with me, Sir Link, for shelter."

"Well, I don't really need-"

"There are storm clouds on the horizon. Follow me to my home." The old woman grabbed Link's hand and started walking deeper into the forest. Link followed her. They trudged through the hilly land a few minutes, going into a thick area of majestically aged oak trees and deadwood. The hooded lady approached a hollowed stump and pulled an outcropped twig several times.

"Cursed thing always jams when it rains," she muttered to herself. The front of the stump gave way and revealed a staircase.

Link followed her down the passageway past a torch-filled wall.

"It's just down this way, Sir Link," she said as she took off her hood.

"You can call me just Link."

"Just Link? The one who saved our land from Agahnim? The one who recovered the Triforce? The one who restored the seal of the wise men and returned peace to Hyrule? Wants to be called just Link? My dear boy, 'sir' is the absolute least title I could hope to bestow upon your noble brow."

Link didn't say anything. Who would after such a speech?

"Children, look!" the matron said when she emerged into the cavernous main area. "The Hero of Hyrule!"

"It's Link! It's Link!" the two children's squeaky voices cried as they sprang up from their seats on the floor and scooted up to their beloved idol.

"Oh, Sir Link, we've always wanted to meet you."

"Will you be staying with us?

"Oh, yes. Please stay the night, please."

"Children, children," she clapped her hands "Show some manners now. Let the poor soul rest his feet for a minute." She led him over to a chair. "You just rest there for a bit and I'll get you something warm to drink."

"Thank you," Link replied. The old woman scuttled off to another section of the cave. Link closed his eyes and took a deep cathartic breath. When he opened his eyes he became aware that the two kids were sitting on the floor and staring at him with huge open eyes, never even blinking.

"So..." Link started, trying to break the unpleasant silence, "Um... do you live down here?"

"Uh-huh, we found it."

"We used to live near the pond, but then it got flooded."

"Yeah, he almost drowned."

"No, I didn't!"

"Yeah, you did."

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, you did."

"Children, children, that's enough now, it's off to bed with you."

"Awww, we want to stay up with Link some more."

"Now, now, I'll hear none of this. Off to bed with you."

The kids got up and skittered into a tunnel shouting "Good night, Link!"

The woman sighed. "They can be trying at times, but I couldn't love them more." She handed Link a steaming round cup. "This is a root drink that grows down here."

"How long have you been living here?"

"Oh, more than half the year now."

"Why don't you live in the villages?"

"We have no trade. My husband died during Agahnim's reign and since then our money dwindled down."

"That's terrible. I'm so sorry."

"Well, I think we've managed to make a good life considering all. But you, you should get to bed. Here, put this blanket on." the lady handed Link a thick woolen sheet.

"Thank you," Link replied sweetly.

"Now, you go to sleep, get a good night's rest, and I'll see you in the morning." She shuffled out of the room, leaving Link alone with the dim glowlight. Link considered the kindness and hospitality of this stranger. How could someone in such an unfortunate situation maintain such a warm motherly attitude. Maybe it was his status as a royal figure that prompted this fresh disposition. He really shouldn't have been so curt, Link disliked it when people treated him like they treated the royal family. He was just a server of them. A highly esteemed server, but nonetheless he was still not royalty.

Anyway, he had to ready for the continuation of his quest tomorrow. Link drifted off to peaceful slumber.

 _...thunder, lost...  
"Hello?"  
...grass, rain stings...  
..."Hellooooo!"  
...barely see, cloudy, faded...  
...light, bright, golden...  
Triforce  
"Get out."_

Link woke with a start. The glowlight had been extinguished so he was welcomed by total blackness.

He thought back to the dream. He had been lost somewhere deep within the center of a storm and seen the Triforce. Any dream with the Triforce was powerful and most definitely meant something. The voice had told him to get out. That meant there was no time to lose, Link grabbed his pack and set off to find the cave's exit.

After a deal of groping around for his lantern he used it to find his way back out of the cave and up to the surface. Once there the large, low moon shone through holes in the canopy.

Link came outside the border of the forest and stopped to take a drink from his canteen. The sky was beginning to lighten from the impending sun. He heard a rustling from behind him in the trees and turned around and saw a blue dog-faced beast emerge from the foliage with spear pointing straight at him. Four of his friends came out with him.

"Who invited you?" Link smirked as he dropped his pack and pulled out his sword. "Sorry, this is a one-man quest."

Link jumped forward with sword hilt at his hip. He swiped at the first moblin's spear, knocking it away and then knocking him in the face with the sword's shaft. The moblin bounced back and swiped with his beefy claw, striking Link in the arm. He pulled back, and one of his buddies came up from behind and cracked Link in the back of his head with the hilt of his spear. Resounding pain made Link see white.

"Hey, guys, can we cut a deal here?" Link grabbed the back of his head. The moblins strafed into a circle surrounding Link, holding their polearms at the ready. Red light gleamed out of their eyes. Link held up his sword, ready for a four-way attack.

But they stopped and their faces changed to ones of fright. Link looked behind him.

A giant, swirling vortex was forming in front of him, spiraling and opening up like an iris. It shimmered black and gold and rippled like water. The vortex oscillated violently and with a flash, spit out a body onto the ground. The vortex closed back in on itself as quickly as it had appeared.

Link looked at what the portal had deposited. It was a small man dressed in blue, wearing a bulky helmet around his head. His right arm ended in a thick cylinder the same color as his clothes.

The man stood and looked at Link and the monsters behind him.

"Now I'm in trouble."

 **Next Chapter: The Meeting**


	4. The Meeting

For a moment, the entire assemblage stood motionless. Moblin, human, and robot, all looked at each other with the same quizzical expressions on their faces. If Link had considered it, he wouldn't believe the moblins to bear enough intelligence to be confused. But he would be correct in that the moblins didn't have enough intelligence to be kept that way for long.

One growled a loud challenge and raised his spear, charging forward. The battle re-ensued. Link reawakened as well, fending off two attackers with his sword.

Mega Man saw the strange beast coming at him and ducked out of the way. Since he had no files found in memory regarding the data of such creatures, he couldn't automatically assume they were enemies. They could be humans in a clever disguise, such as a holographic field, for all he knew. This regulation prevented him from taking immediate action against the attackers, since it could result in the violation of Law One. However, judging by the little he knew of the situation, since he saw the lot of them fighting one single human on the other side of the clearing, it would seem that these monsters had malevolent intentions. However, it would not be wise to jump to the conclusion of which side was which yet. It would be optimal if the human in green could provide information as to the happening events.

With this .0002 nanoseconds of environmental processing finished, Mega Man ducked a spear stab from a monster. He could take no offensive action, but he could take defensive action according to Law Three. Ducking blows, he maneuvered backwards to cross paths with the human warrior.

Link bravely defended himself as well. The swish of swords and clang of metal against metal repeated rapidly. Regarding the man in blue, Link thought perhaps he could gain an ally in this struggle, since the moblins had attacked him too. He was defending himself now. Wherever the strange man came from, he could sure use another hand. Moving smoothly, drawing his opponent forward, he stepped back to the center where the blue man was backing up from oncoming monsters.

"Excuse me, what transpires here?" the man in blue asked.

"It doesn't matter, I could use your help."

"What sort of people are these?"

"They're not people, they're monsters."

"Then they're not human?"

"Right."

"All right." That was all Mega Man needed to hear. If they weren't human, the first law of robotics didn't apply. Unsheathing his Mega Buster from within his arm, he immediately unleashed a plasma shot at one of the monsters. The energy ripped through its flesh, leaving a gaping hole where the shot went through. Dumbfounded, the moblin looked down to see his lack of torso, looked up with a rather pathetic face, and vanished in a puff of smoke. Mega Man shot two more monsters, killing them with one blow of the buster. The two other monsters saw this and immediately fled in the opposite direction, disappearing back into the woods.

Link looked on in awe. This had to be the man of metal with the arm of light, undoubtedly. This was the one prophesized to him to help him recover the three pendants. He looked like no one he had ever seen before. A little shorter than himself, he had a helmet of dark blue, and wore a skintight light and dark blue jumpsuit. Rather odd attire for a warrior of this caliber. And the weapon seemed to melt into his arm. If he didn't know this was an ally, he'd be inclined to run the way of the moblins.

Mega Man turned to see who was his fighting compatriot. He looked enough like a human, but he had some rather elf-like characteristics. His ears were pointed, and he had long golden hair raining from his hat, which looked like a stocking cap. He wore a green dress, sandals, and was carrying a knapsack.

"Thank you," Mega Man said.

Link approached Mega Man, sword still out at the ready should he be wrong. He slowly put out a hand. Mega Man looked at it curiously; it wasn't in the proper position for a handshake. Link touched Mega Man on the chest. He felt cold and hard, like the metal that made his blade. This was a suit of armor, yet so thin. How could it be effective? He reached up and touched his face with a pointed finger. It felt soft, like skin, but not exactly, colder. He pushed in, and met something smooth, not irregular like bone. Something melded to the exact shape of his round face.

Mega Man still looked at the elf-boy curiously; he appeared to be ascertaining what he felt like.

"Are you... a man of metal?"

"I am made of metal. Various alloys and plastics as well."

"Do you have a name?" Link asked.

"My name is... Mega Man," Mega Man wasn't sure whether to introduce himself as 'Mega Man' or 'Rock', but for right now, 'Mega Man' was fine until he knew this person better.

"My name is Link."

"What is this place?"

"The Lost Woods... in Hyrule."

Hyrule. No files found. Not only that but he had lost all his telecommunications links, period. That either meant he was in an undiscovered part of Earth, unlikely, or some other planet altogether.

"Is there a name for this planet?"

"What's a planet?"

"A celestial body moving in an orbit around a sun," he said, quoting from his lexicon.

"All right," Link replied warily, completely in the dark about what he just said. "We don't have any of those here. We call this land Hyrule. Just where did you come from?"

"Not here, definitely. I come from Earth in a city. It-"

"What's a city?"

"An inhabited place of greater size, population, and status than a town or village."

"I've never heard of that before."

Mega Man did another scan of Link's attire. It seemed almost medieval judging by his weaponry and clothing. This must have been a lesser developed culture. But when and where?

"What is the deal with your arm?" Link asked.

"The deal?"

"What..." Link wasn't quite sure what to ask. "What is it made out of?"

"It's a plasma energy cannon capable of energy charge with an integrated weapon copy system."

Once again, in the dark. "Okaaaaaay," Link smiled and nodded. Nonetheless, he was still convinced that this was the man of metal.

"I need to recover my telecomm links. I have to get back to where I came from before the robots take total control of it."

"What's a robot?"

"A robot is composed of a mechanical and electrical device that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts of a human being, being computationally programmed through use of circuits and wiring to..." Mega Man stopped as he realized he was sounding too much like a dictionary and Link wasn't comprehending anything. "Robots are other men made of metal. Mechanical men, so to speak."

"Okay." Once again...

"Wait, do you mean to tell me that there are no telecomm links, no robots, no cities, no nothing?"

"Wherever you came from, it's not here." Link felt a strong wind and looked up. Dark gray clouds were moving in from the east. It appeared that the storm of his dream was literal. They were on the edge of the forest and could reach shelter in time if they hurried.

Mega Man contemplated what to do. What was the vortex that was created? Perhaps if he could analyze the traces of the portal, he could find more data and get a better idea of what he was dealing with. Of course he had no tools to do so, so his results would be limited.

"Come on, let's go."

"No, I should stay here and analyze this area to see if there are traces of the portal left."

"We have to get moving. There's a storm coming in. If we start now, we can get to shelter before it comes."

"No, even after my analysis is complete, we must proceed to your leader's home base and inform your sovereign of my situation. Perhaps that person will be able to provide a solution."

"We're not going back to Hyrule Castle," Link replied incredulously. "It's much too far to walk now. I didn't travel all this way just to find you."

"'Hyrule Castle' is the most likely place to have the answers to my questions."

"We can't go backward. We gotta press forward if we want to make it to shelter."

"I have to get in contact with those who have the best chance of assisting me."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"All right, all right, let's compromise, let's go to an inn. The village is near here anyway."

"That's fine. But first I need to complete my analysis."

"We don't have time for your stupid analysis. Didn't you just hear me say there's a storm coming? Won't you rust or whatever?"

"My armor is an airtight-"

"No, no, just forget it. Just hurry up and do your analysis." Link dejectedly walked up to a tree and sat against it. He took out the canteen from his backpack while he waited.

Mega Man scanned the area once all the way around. "Finished."

"What?"

"I'm finished with my analysis."

"Already?" Link hadn't even opened his canteen.

"Yes, we may go."

"Well... all right then." Link picked up his backpack and headed out.

* * *

Why did every inn seem to look the same around Hyrule, Link thought. Wine barrels against the wall. Table in the corner. Bar against the wall. A single picture with a portrait of a smiling somebody. And every bar had the same picture of that grinning idiot. Was he the patron saint of alcohol?

Link stepped up to the bar, intending to talk with the barkeeper for anything he might have heard about current events.

Mega Man scanned the scene. In this environment he would stick out like a sore thumb. "What should I do?"

"Ummm... just... try to blend."

"Try to blend?"

"Make some friends, I don't know," he shrugged. "Go over there, meet some people. Maybe they can help you."

Mega Man furrowed his eyebrows and approached a table of male patrons.

Link ignored him for the time and looked at the barkeeper.

"He a friend of yours?"

"Just something I picked up in the woods," Link replied as he took a seat on the stool.

The bartender set out a red drink before him. Free of charge to the Hero of Hyrule. "If you're asking about where the moblins might be comin' from I couldn't tell ya," the drinkslinger said, "Since the news hit the town, most people just hear the word 'moblin' and scatter."

"Not worried about the moblins right now. What've you heard from the thieves' corner?"

"Thieves' guild? I try to stay out of their business."

"I try to stay out of their business too, but it never seems to work. What do you know? Anything about a palace heist?"

"Might know someone who'd be able to help you better than anybody else in town. Goes by the name of Grizzled Jack, used to be part of the thieves' guild. Ornery fellow, lives out in the wilderness, likes to keep selves to selves, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." Link stole a glance at Mega Man, who was now sitting at a table engaged in conversation.

* * *

Roll shoved Dr. Light down into the underground shelter, and quickly shut the vault door behind her, sealing the dual-locking system.

"We can only hope Rock and Rush can stop them before it's too late."

"Yeah, that sounds rather familiar," Roll smirked.

Dr. Light smirked back. "Yes, I suppose it does. After all the confidence I've put into Mega Man, he's been in tougher situations than this and survived. I'm sure he'll win the day. But why are we being attacked outright? Wily's never taken direct action against me before, he's always tried to control the world. Why is he just attacking me?"

As if to emphasize his statement, thunderous crashing echoed in the chamber, coming from above. Coming from Wily and his robots destroying his home. Tremendous crashing rang at random intervals, making Light shirk back in fear.

"Oh my precious experiments. I-"

A great crashing, the loudest of all, rang out right next to the door. Roll opened the ultaPyrex eyehole and looked out. All she could see were the granules of a rock blocking her view.

"It looks like we're trapped. There's been a cave-in and it's blocking the door."

The overhead light flickered and died. The hum of generators slowed down to a crawl and silenced.

"The power's gone out," Roll stated.

"Oh, dear, that's bad, that's bad."

"What?"

"This shelter was built airtight. Without power there's no oxygen generators. I'm going to suffocate!"

 **Next Chapter: Bar Fight Tonight**


	5. Bar Fight Tonight

*TWANG*

*THOK*

The arrow wiggled up and down, embedded in the haystack where it was fired. It was a little off center of the target in the yellow concentric circle. That would be the third 'almost-bull's-eye' she'd gotten today. I must be slipping, she thought. She reached down below for the quiver and pulled out another arrow. Nocking it on the bow, she concentrated and released the string. The arrow flew into the border of the red and yellow circles. Better, she thought. She grasped the bowstring and tugged it. May have to get this tightened though.

Zelda stepped over the door of the stall to retrieve her arrows. Her makeshift archery range was in the castle basement in an abandoned stable, a new one having been built years ago. Dirty and grungy, unkempt for years, hardly a place for a princess to be. But it was just about the only place to find some peace and quiet.

Since Link had defeated Ganon and recovered the Triforce, peace had returned to Hyrule. Nevertheless, Zelda had felt extremely vulnerable during the whole ordeal, having been kidnapped by Agahnim and imprisoned in a crystal within Turtle Rock, she realized just how important she was and how necessary the ability to defend herself would be. It certainly wouldn't do to rely on Link as the sole protector when he was only an 'independent knight' of the kingdom. Although it certainly would be nice if Link would stay at the castle, after all he did for the world it was the least he could do. But Link had politely declined when offered, preferring his house just south of the castle grounds as a residence.

Never mind that though. Zelda shook her head to stop her aimless mind wandering. There was still plenty of practice left. She plucked out each arrow embedded in the hay block, and cradled them in her hand. Stepping over the door of the stall again, much easier to do with her riding pants rather than that incessant skirt she was always supposed to wear, she reset her position for firing. She picked up another arrow and held it at the ready on her bow.

"Keep doing that and you'll get calluses."

Zelda lowered her weapon and looked to her left. Horace, the captain of the guards was standing a little ways down the hall, walking towards her. He was dressed in his basic light chain armor and orange tunic, sans helmet.

"So?" Zelda held her nose in the air and returned to the aim of her bow.

He continued, "It's very unbecoming of a princess to have rough hands."

"I've never been very becoming of a princess. You have my six sisters for that," she said as she steadied her aim and fired. "You came down here for something, I gather?"

"Aye, I've come to give you the report of our findings regarding the theft of the pendants."

Zelda again dropped her bow, and faced Horace. Horace hesitated to speak.

Zelda said, "And?"

"And... I just gave it."

"What? But you said nothing."

"Exactly. There is nothing to report. We haven't found anything."

Zelda grunted in frustration and walked over to a wooden pillar. She hung her head and leaned on it, looking back at her captain. "Well, what are we supposed to do now, I'd like to know. Our only hope is Link out in the field, and he's got as little to go on as we do. Has the king been consulted on this?"

"He has, but has left the decision making up to you. You know the situation better than the rest of us. We could send out the soldiers to scour the land, but..."

"But that would be a highly ineffective waste of resources." Zelda looked down at the stone floor and pondered, scraping some hay off her shoe that she had noticed. "It's so strange. What would someone want the pendants for anyway. The purpose of the pendants is to awaken the Master Sword, but only the Hero can wield the Master Sword. So, what other purpose do the pendants have?"

Horace put a thinking finger to his lips. "Interesting question. I'll have the archivists find the answer to that as soon as possible."

"Good. If we can find that out, we could cut them off at the pass, so to speak."

"There is one other thing I have noticed, off the record. The vizier has been acting strangely as of late."

"The vizier? Noktwor? What in the world would make you think that?"

"Absolutely nothing," was all Horace could respond with. Zelda put a hand on her hip and looked at him like 'you're going to have to do better than that'.

"All I can tell you is his behavior is quite odd. Sneaking around in early hours of the morning. Stammering excuses of where he's been. It's all disconcerted me."

"But nothing you could arrest him for," Zelda said confidently. She was heavily displeased with this lack of professionalism in her guards.

"Unfortunately, other than that, we have no leads, no suspects, no motive, and no clue."

"Fantastic," Zelda sighed. "Very well, if that's all we have to go on. Continue on the best you can. There's always a clue somewhere."

"Understood, princess, I'll tell my men to continue their investigation." The captain bowed graciously and left the stables. Zelda watched him depart, then picked up the bow and an arrow. She knew deep down that these jobs would be delegated down and down until the lowest bidder would be working on it, and she was tired of duties and tasks being shuffled off on someone else's shoulders. It was the very bane of bureaucracy. There was only one thing she could do, she resolved. That would be to return to the scene of the crime and start making her own personal investigation. It was the only way anything would ever be done around here. There had to be something that they missed.

She aimed the bow along her eye line, muttering to herself, "There's always a clue..."

She let go. The arrow hit the bull's-eye squarely.

"Always."

* * *

Link sipped slowly on his deku tea, leaning over the bar and staring blankly ahead at the shelves behind the bar, reading the names on the labels of the bottles: Zora filtered water, poppleberry wine, spiced apple cider, octorok juice, Goron beer, Lon-Lon Milk, aged fairy spirit wines, carbonated caramel water...

"Hey there, the bottles are for drinking, not reading," the bartender glibly said. Link just glared up at him.

He continued, "So who's your friend over there?"

"He's not my friend, he's just someone I picked up on the way."

"Sure has got some funny clothes. I guess bright blue is the new fashion."

"I wouldn't know." Link reset his posture to sit up straight and took another sip of tea.

"Is he your new partner?"

"I don't have partners. I work alone. I never needed anyone to help me before, and I don't need it now."

The bartender hummed in affirmation as he wiped out a beer mug.

Link had been essentially isolated during his quest for the Triforce. From the very start of his adventure he was a wanted man by the royal guard, and in the Dark World, well, the pursuit of him there was self-explanatory. He had learned to fend for himself, because no one else was going to do it for him.

"Looks like he's having a good time, though," the bartender said.

Link twisted around on his stool to see the bright blue soldier sitting at a table playing cards, contrasting heavily with the other roughnecks around him in drab green and brown. Link smiled to himself.

The bartender leaned in closer to Link, "You realize that's the Card Club mafia, right?"

"I do. He can defend himself. If he doesn't, he'll learn." He finished off the rest of his tea.

Suddenly, one of the card players jumped up from the table, kicking back his chair. "That's it, that's the last time you win, punk."

Link's eyes bulged out from the above his mug. "Uh-oh."

Mega Man's attacker pulled a knife from his belt and lunged at him. Mega Man leaned slightly to the side and let the blade deflect off his armor. His attacker fell forward behind him.

"That's some armor you've got there, punk," another said.

"I didn't want any trouble," Mega Man responded. "I just wanted to gather sociological information from you by playing this game. You see, the problem is there's an inherent strategy flaw in the game's rules-"

"I don't wanna hear nothin' 'bout no rules. Youse is cheatin'!" the third card player exclaimed.

"Hold 'im, Gus."

Another sizeable opponent snuck around Mega Man's back and pinned his arms over his head in a full-nelson, leaving him open for attack. "Go for it, Ungar," Gus said in a snide, ratty voice to the big man.

Ungar pounded his fists together, ready to give Mega Man a beating. "Heh, time to show you a little boy shouldn't play a man's game." Ungar took off Mega Man's helmet, unveiling his ratty brown hair. "Take this stupid hat off." He wound up and punched him with a right cross across the face. Mega Man's head slightly bobbed to the side as the punch connected.

Ungar clutched his hand in pain. "OW! You got yourself a hard head there, kid," he said as he shook his hand out. He picked up his switchblade again. "Let's see how it looks all cut up." He pulled his arm back-

-And felt someone clutching his arm from behind. He looked and found Link grabbing tightly onto him.

"Say there, wanna take it a little easy on the kid?" Link asked innocently. "It's his first time in Hyrule after all."

"He knew what he was doing," Ungar responded gruffly, yanking his hand back and facing Link. "Guess they don't make 'em too bright where his kind comes from."

"Well, all the same, I suggest you stop and leave him alone."

"Or what, little man?"

"Or I'll have to get- aaRGH!"

The third card player smashed a wooden chair on Link's back, shattering it to pieces. Link careened forward and landed on his hands and knees.

"Hey, you can't do that!" one of the miscellaneous patrons said, and threw his bottle at Ungar. It missed and smashed against the wall above a booth. A riot began breaking out around them, bottles thrown, fists flying, chairs tumbling along the ground.

Ungar kicked Link in the stomach as he lay on the ground. The Hero of Hyrule dropped to the floor and breathed deeply. The big man laughed heartily, when suddenly Link spun around and kicked his legs out from under him. Ungar fell backwards, landing on his backside. Link propped himself up on his hands and kicked out, smashing him in the face and standing up at the same time. He saw Mega Man was standing placidly in the middle of the brawl like an idiot.

"Idiot! Get over here!" Link called to him as he flipped over the table to use as a barricade. Mega Man picked up his helmet, put it on, and quickly came to Link's side crouched behind the tabletop.

"Well, you'll never be able to show your face in here again," Link said in a deadpan voice.

"What happened? Why did they try to attack me?"

"Don't you know any better than to play with the Card Club? They're hustlers, they'll take your money."

"I was able to play the game without losing any money. You see, there's an inherent flaw in the strategy of the game-."

"Never mind, let's get out of here." Link grabbed the table legs and started dragging his makeshift shield back towards the door.

"Not so fast, punks." Link and Mega Man turned and saw the three Card Club members standing in front of them, the middle one tapping a broken-off table leg against his hand. He swung it down over Link's head. Mega Man's hand shot out lightning-fast and grabbed it in mid-flight.

"You're dead meat," Ungar made several quick knife thrusts at Mega Man's torso, shrieking against metal each time.

"Punch him or something!" Link exclaimed, looking back at him while holding off the two others with his sword. Ungar pulled back his broken knife and looked at it sadly.

Link pushed off the other two with a grunt. "Errgh, enough of this." Link held his sword readied behind him. A trail of sparkling energy traveled up the length of the blade and sparked at its tip. "Take this."

Releasing the magical energy, he spun around in a blazing whirlwind. The card players were blown back as Mega Man ducked under the path of the sword.

"Time to go."

Link and Mega Man made off out of the bar's door. Muffled sounds of fighting and crashing still continued behind them.

"What is your problem!" Link yelled at Mega Man as they headed north. "Are you some sort of peace nut or something? You didn't even tap him! Did you want to get hit?"

"I can't hurt humans."

"Well, you better learn how if you're gonna be here a while."

"No, you don't understand. I mean, I really can't. I'm incapable of causing harm to humans, it's in my programming."

"Your programming? What's that?"

"It's a set of laws in my land that ... my kind have to abide by." He left off the word "robot" as that would have likely started more confusion.

"Well, you're not in your land anymore."

"I still can't break them. They're ingrained in my behavior."

Link looked forward, off into the trail. "But you had no problem fighting those moblins."

"They weren't human, you said."

"They're not."

"So my rules don't apply to them."

"Hmph," Link grunted and kicked a small rock along the road. "I don't get it. If you can't harm humans, then what about all those people in the bar who got hurt in the riot. Didn't you cause them harm? What about if you let them harm others?"

"There used to be another part to the law that said we cannot let humans come to harm through inaction, but that was repealed when they found it was too impractical. We kept preventing humans from doing their work, even if it was slightly dangerous."

"So... does that make you... non-human."

"I told you, I'm a robot."

"Right, right, a human machine, something about complex tasks. Anyway..."

"Anyway are we going back to the castle now?"

"Look, I want to get you back to your own land as much as you do, but right now, I'm sort of on a quest here, and I can't really stop to take you back anywhere. Besides, you've seen the sort of things here, we don't have any of what... you can do. Do you really think there's anything here that can help you?"

"...Perhaps not." Mega Man cast his eyes down at the floor.

"All right, so your best bet is to stick with me, unfortunately. But whatever you do, try not to get in the way. Fine?"

"Fine."

"All right, let's get going."

* * *

Dr. Light sat against the corner of the tiny vault, doing his best not to move at all. Moving meant using up energy, which meant using up breath. Precious oxygen was starting to fade, and he had been in the tomb for hours. Roll had spent that time going over every inch of the vault, looking for weak spots in the wall, testing the strength of the door, trying to find any way out. Unfortunately, Roll, while still much stronger than an average human, was not built for brawn. Tearing down the door was not an option.

"How are you doing, Dr. Light?"

"Fine, dear," Dr. Light rasped.

The sound of Dr. Light's voice told Roll that he was obviously not fine. It wouldn't be too long until he would pass out from lack of air and eventually die. "The weakest spot I've found is on this wall," Roll pointed to a blank, cemented white wall. "I'm going to try to break through it." Roll wound up and started punching the wall at the spot where she pointed. Thunderous vibrations echoed in the small chamber as she repeatedly pounded.

"Roll... no... careful..." Light tried to protest.

"What?" Roll paused her destruction and turned to Light, her knuckles crusted in white dust.

"I... never mind." Light remembered that robots don't feel pain and doused his natural instinct to protect his children. Roll returned to punching. A spider-web of cracks began to appear in the wall.

"Don't worry, Dr. Light. I'll have you out of here in a jiffy." She glanced back at the old man. "Dr. Light?"

 **Next Chapter: Grizzled to Perfection**


	6. Grizzled to Perfection

Zelda stopped before she turned the corner and smoothed out a ruffle in her light blue dress. _Obnoxious skirt_ , she thought. Two guards standing in front of the closed vault door waited for her to approach them. They held spears upright and wore helmets that seemed too big for their heads.

"Princess," one of them greeted and bowed his head.

"Good morrow, gentleman. Please open the vault."

"I'm sorry?"

"Open the vault door, please. I assume you know the combination."

"Er, yes, Princess, but why would you want to go in there?"

Zelda's anger level began to rise inversely to her patience. "I want to inspect the scene of the crime for any clues that may have been missed."

The guards looked at each other. "Isn't that a job more for the royal investigator?"

The other chimed in, "Yeah, and hasn't that already been done?"

Zelda held her breath for three seconds. "All right, listen, buddy, I'm the princess of Hyrule, I'm in charge. So you'd better open this door or you will be licking Kakariko Village's main street with your tongues. Understand?"

The guards quickly opened the vault.

Zelda stepped in. The place was exactly as it was left. To the normal eye, it was just a vault for holding the three pendants. Nonetheless, that vault should have been secure with all the physical and magical barriers surrounding it. No one could have teleported into the room. No one could have opened up the vault door. No one had even opened the vault door since the Master Sword was laid to rest and the pendants were no longer needed.

Zelda ran her hands over the mahogany table. There were three impressions made specifically for the pendants. One made of sapphire for courage, one made of emerald for wisdom, one made of ruby for power. They mirrored the three parts of the Triforce, testing the mettle of the Hero who would awaken the sword. She thought maybe it would have been better if they were kept in a lock box or a treasure chest for safekeeping, instead of on display like this. As if anyone would be able to come and see the artifacts like in a museum.

Zelda rubbed her hand along the impression for the pendant of wisdom. Nothing felt suspicious, no hollowed out wood, no invisibility spell traces. She sat down on her back, shifting her dress to a semi-comfortable state, and gripped onto the edge of the table, using it to slide under. Nothing going on there either. The wood was as solid as a rock, so to speak. No holes, no sliding cubbies. She switched onto her hands and knees and inspected the floor. The tiling covering the rock hard cement enclosure was immaculate. No one had ever been in this room at all for a long time. She thought about going over every line of grout, testing every tile, but that seemed fruitless.

No, wait, that's what she would have to do if she was going to make an even more thorough inspection than the previous investigators. And then if she was going to keep her mission statement enforced, she would have to inspect all the walls and the ceiling, make several magic scans, and so on. She growled to herself. She didn't want to do something so tedious, that's precisely why she hated being a princess so much. If the frickin' idiots working for her were doing their job, this wouldn't be necessary. She slammed her hand into the floor in frustration.

A corner of tile popped up next to where she had hit the floor.

Zelda eyed it curiously. Just a triangular edge of the ceramic tile was poking out of the ground. If her eyes hadn't been in straight view she wouldn't have even noticed it. Using her fingernails she delicately caught hold of the corner and scraped it up out of place. She lifted it out of the slot, revealing a hole in the floor leading to some crawlspace. At last, this had to be the way the pendants were snuck out.

"Guards, call the captain! Tell him I've found something," she called to the two outside.

"Yes, princess." She heard them skitter off as she inspected the hole, trying to find anything else, even the tiniest clue. She narrowed her eyes down, trying to increase their magnification. She noticed the corner closest to her had a short purple thread barely hanging off it. Delicately, so as not to let it fall into the hole and disappear, she scooped it into her hand for closer inspection. _The vizier has a purple robe_ , she mused. _I wonder_.

* * *

*knock, knock, knock*

Link chose to knock on the door, rather than heed the signs nailed to it that read 'BEWARE!', 'GO AWAY! This means you!', and 'Trespassers will be harmed... a lot!'. Waiting for an answer, Link looked back behind him, where he could see the backs of signs posted out in the yard that displayed essentially the same thing. There was a well near the house and a stump for cutting logs with an axe embedded in it. The red wood above Grizzled Jack's door was practically rotted away. Ants and wasps crawled in and out of the termite-bitten holes. The bartender sure wasn't kidding when he said he liked to keep selves to selves.

Dusk was quickly approaching, and it was hardly sound thinking to be outside in the dark in Hyrule. They would need shelter quickly.

"This place doesn't look too structurally sound," Mega Man commented from behind Link.

"Yeah," Link begrudgingly agreed. This area was near where the lumberjack brothers used to live, constantly trying to cut down that tree. But this shack was much farther north. Almost into the mountains.

Link knocked again. The wood even felt soft. "Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone in there?"

While Link stood near the door, Mega Man circled the perimeter of the house, looking for anything else of interest. How anyone could be allowed to live like this was abominable. This was practically living homelessly. In his world, the government had long ago set up affordable housing tracts that were well maintained, with the cheap labor that robots brought in. Homelessness was virtually eliminated.

Rustling from the dark forest that bordered the square of land alerted him. He relaxed when he saw it was nothing more than two birds flying out. When he reached the back of the house he found an animal skin stretched out for tanning on a board leaning against the wall. Mega Man looked at it curiously, deducing it was some sort of a bear creature with leopard-patterned fur and a spinal back. More evidence that this world had no relation to his own. It was a lot like being thrust into the past, but not his past. He came back around to the house's front. "Nothing much back there."

"Hmm..." Link decided to skip formalities and just go in. He'd been waiting long enough and he needed the info as soon as possible. If Jack was home and sleeping or out, Link would just have to wait inside until he came back. He lifted up the handle of the door, which promptly tore off the weak wood. Link stared at it in his hand. "Oops."

He tossed the handle on the ground and pushed open the door. It creaked open slowly, eerily, as Link and Mega Man stood side-by-side, looking in with wide eyes. Dim, orange light gradually streamed into the dank and decaying room.

"Nice touch," Link commented.

He cautiously poked his boot across the threshold. The floorboards creaked with neglect, wide slits permeated the surface. A large pile of paper next to an inkstand sat on a table standing on three and a half legs. A fur rug was crumpled in a corner that had to be Jack's bed and a pile of bones on the other side of the house made the grisly scene complete. Mega Man stepped in as well.

"Please tell me you don't all live like this."

"Hardly. This guy must have some serious issues with civilization." Link squinted his eyes. "You can barely see in here." He fetched out his lantern from his pocket and sprinkled a dash of magic powder in to light it. A moth flew out from the unused lamp.

"What's that?" Mega Man spun around and leveled his arm cannon at it. He stopped short once he realized it was harmless.

"Aaah," Link stumbled back. "Don't point that thing at me!" Link's lack of balance forced him backwards as he stepped onto a metal clutch. The trigger fired and closed the bear trap set on the floor around Link's boot.

Link's eyes burst open with surprise and pain, "YEOWTCH!" He tripped and fell onto the floor. Quickly, he grabbed his foot in pain. "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Mega Man came over to his side. He was programmed to provide medical aid to humans and that program had just fired up. "How deep is it?"

"Argh, you idiot! I knew you'd do nothing but get in my way. Now I've got this stupid bear trap digging into my leg." Link could feel it penetrating the leather of his boot and blood seeping out of the punctures.

Mega Man took hold of the steel trap in his hands and pried it apart swiftly. Link looked somewhat taken aback at this feat of strength, but it hardly changed his attitude as he glowered up at the blue-clad soldier.

"Let's take that boot off and treat the wound," Mega Man said.

"I'm fine with my boot. The wound didn't go that deep."

"You sure screamed a lot for it not being that deep."

"It's thick leather. It just took me by surprise."

"Just take off your boot, or it'll get infected."

"I like infections. It builds character. I get them all the time."

"Not as long as I'm here-"

"Why don't you just get out of here then. I'm sure you'd have as much luck finding a way back home on your own."

"I don't have anywhere to go! You're the only person I know here who hasn't acted hostile to me."

"Then find someone else, cause I feel pretty hostile right now. I do my questing alone, and I don't need some foreigner stepping on my toes. If it wasn't for that stupid prophecy, I would have left you in the Lost Woods!"

"What prophecy?"

"That spacy Seer said there was some prophecy that I would meet a man of metal with an arm of light and we'd solve the mystery of the pendants."

"That's ridiculous. If the only reason you're helping me is because of some foolish prophecy then I can find help else-"

"Shh, wait... do you hear something."

Mega Man attuned his listening sensors. There was some metallic clinking sound above him. They both looked up. An assortment of knives, blades, axes, all chained up to the ceiling were hanging above them, dangling with the breeze. Most of them were rusty and way beyond safe use.

"Oh, that... that's not good," Link said.

"I don't think civilization's the only thing he has issues with."

A meat cleaver broke off from the chain and plummeted down to the floor, landing right next to Link's leg, wedged into the floorboard by the point of the blade. He could feel the coolness of the knife next to his skin.

"Eep," Link said timidly.

Mega Man whispered, "Try not... to make... a sound."

"Okay." Link's eyes were glued heavenward at the precarious sharp objects. "Get up slowly... and walk towards the door."

Mega Man leaned back and pushed himself up by his knees. Link suppressed a grunt and gritted his teeth as he put weight on his injured ankle. A wind rushed through the trees outside. Link held his breath as he waited for the breeze to come into the house, looking up like a puppy about to be disciplined. The knives dangled back and forth in wider arcs like sadistic wind chimes. Both of them shuffled their feet quietly towards the door.

"What thur blazes are you doin' in ma house!"

Link and Mega Man's head darted to the doorway and saw a great big brutish person holding a wood-chopping axe, blocking the only way out.

 **Next Chapter: Chiseled and Grizzled**


	7. Chiseled and Grizzled

BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*BAM*

Roll pounded away at the wall as fast as she could, her arms going like an old car engine piston. Her energy source was pumping out well beyond her tolerance levels. The entire wall of the vault had become a ruin of cracked cement like it had been half-eaten away.

Roll looked back at Dr. Light as her fists kept pounding. He had slumped over to his side, cuddled against the wall. His complexion had a slight blue tinge emerging.

Roll stopped her fists short of the wall. "Oh, no, Dr. Light, please..." She dashed over to his fallen form and gently pushed him back upright. His eyes were closed, and his skin was clammy. Roll's eyes widened with fear. "Come on, come back to me." She gently shook him, trying to wake him up. Her panic mode set in. She had to find a way to circulate some air in the room fast. If not, there was the risk of asphyxiation or brain damage, and possibly death. Quickly, she jumped up to the tiny vent at the top of the cubic room, trying to see if there was anything down there. There was nothing. She couldn't take out the light implanted in the ceiling, or rip through the door or dig a hole or anything. Punching through the wall still had hours to go before she could make progress. Roll held her hands to her head in frustration. "Oh god!" she exclaimed, her voice wavering like an upset teenage girl. It was utterly hopeless.

She raced back to Dr. Light's side, looking up at him from her knees. "Oh, god, I'm sorry, Dr. Light, I can't get you out of here. I can't think of any way to get you out of here. You're going to die and it's all my fault. I led you down here, and we got locked in, and I'm so sorry. Please forgive me." Roll closed her eyes and put her arms around Light's body, pulling him close to her. "I don't know if you can hear me now, but..."

Roll's arm touched the outside of one of Light's pockets in his lab coat. The object inside suddenly made a faint humming sound, undetectable to any human ear. It felt like a large pen with a handle. The girl robot dug into the lab coat pocket and pulled it out. The object was black and had a colored level indicator slowly charging up.

Delightedly, she held it up into the light. A plasma cutter! It was a device used for cutting hard metals with precision. At its fullest charge, surely it would be able to cut through a concrete wall. Roll immediately hit the button for full charge and pointed it at the wall. Once it hit the mark, a beam of white light shot out of the end and hit the wall. Carefully she traced a circle around the point where she had already made a spider-web of cracks, calculating exactly where the weakest points were so as to make a hole big enough for a human to fit through. As soon as she completed the cut-out she shut off the tool, rushed forward, and shoulder-slammed the slice of wall in as hard as she could. She could feel the grinding of the stone as she pushed forward even more, quickly switching to her hands, trying to use the initial inertia to carry the slab out. Chunks of white stone crumbled off the outline. She dug her feet into the ground, giving her better traction, reinforcing her determination. Finally, the rock fell back and collapsed. She could feel a rush of air enter the room as the piece of wall dropped out. She ran back over to Dr. Light. Roll put her ear to his chest, he was still breathing, but shallowly. "Dr. Light? Dr. Light? Can you hear me?"

Dr. Light's eyes fluttered open. He groaned weakly.

Roll continued. "I've broken through the wall. I'm going to get you out of here. Keep breathing."

She helped Dr. Light up to his feet. He was pretty conscious now, but his muscles were jelly, yielding to Roll's actions. She put his arm around her shoulder and led him to the wall.

"I'll go through first and then pull you in," she said. Dr. Light barely nodded in response.

Still holding onto him, she stepped through the portal and gently tugged Dr. Light along with her. Roll was right about her house plans. This area of the mansion had been hollowed out to allow for airflow. They were in a tight crawlspace facing a metal ventilation shaft that blocked their path. It was essentially a slight extension to the vault, with nowhere else to go.

"I think we can open up this panel of the vent shaft and get through it," Roll pointed out as she touched the metal.

"Oh my god, Roll, your hands."

Roll looked down at her hands. The dermal layer had been completely worn down from the ends of her fingers to halfway down her palm. Her metal endoskeleton could be seen, shiny bionic fingers partially covered in shreds of rubbery skin.

"Oops, guess I punched a little hard."

"Are you okay?"

"I'm in no pain. We can get it repaired after this fiasco."

"That dermal layer is a protection against wear and tear on your parts, exposure to air for very long is rather dangerous. Your system has to be as dust free as possible."

"We can't worry about that now." Roll approached the side panel of the ventilation shaft and tore off a side section like a roll of paper. Light cringed at the shrieking sound of metal.

Roll peeked into the shaft. "According to my plans, the closest path to the outside is this way." She started crawling into shaft, then shifted around on her knees to help Dr. Light in.

"Oh my goodness. I've never gone through the house like this before. I can't believe the ventilation shafts are this big."

"I think they need to be for a house of this size."

The two began crawling through the metal tunnel on hands and knees. Roll kept on the heel of her hands to avoid dust getting into her system. Dr. Light, having regained much of his strength, crawled close behind her. He sneezed once in a while from the grime.

"Roll, listen, can you hear anything?" he said.

"I can hear us crawling through the ventilation shaft."

"No, I mean above us, in the mansion? I can't hear anyone in the house at all."

Roll perked up her ears like a cat. "I hear nothing either."

"Perhaps they've left?" Light remarked hopefully.

"We still need to get out of here as soon as possible and alert the authorities, if they haven't already been notified from the massive explosion."

Roll and Dr. Light traveled along the ventilation shaft uneventfully for some time, listening for signs of activity above them. Neither of them thought the robot masters would be searching through the ventilation systems for them. In fact, neither of them had any idea what Wily was planning. He had never attacked Dr. Light directly, he had always sought world domination. For some reason, Wily had little grudge against Dr. Light despite his creation of Mega Man.

Dr. Light passed over a grate below him. "Roll, wait, here." He wouldn't have seen it if he hadn't been looking down as he crawled.

"What?"

"Down here, can we go into this room?"

Roll circled around clumsily, hard to do in a tiny tunnel, and looked down the vent where Light was looking. There was a grimy, industrial room below with green brick walls and a gray factory floor. All she could see was a table and a cabinet from her vantage point. "What is it?"

"It's one of my old labs. I use it for storage now."

"I think we can slip down there. Crawl back, please," Roll commanded.

Light shuffled his heavy frame backwards. Roll pried off the grate with her fingernails and tore up the opening to make enough room for someone to pass through. She made sure to split the sides of the hole downward so Dr. Light wouldn't cut himself. Roll poured herself out of the hole headfirst, grabbed onto the edge of the vent, and uncurled herself until she was upright, like a gymnast. It was quick drop to the ground from there. She outstretched her arms to the ceiling and saw Dr. Light trying to come down feet first, his short little legs dangling in the air.

"Little help, please."

"Stop flailing your legs, Dr. Light."

"How much ground is left?"

"You'll be fine, just keep sliding out," Roll said as she tried to get a hold of Dr. Light's kicking legs. "Come on."

"Okay, here I go."

Dr. Light's pudgy body slowly shifted out of the ventilation tunnel like a melted marshmallow through a pipe. Roll deftly caught him as his center of balance came down and set him on the ground.

"Ah, thank you, Roll," Dr. Light said as he brushed himself off. "My lab coat will need some laundering though."

"I'll get right on it," Roll said compliantly.

"No, no, not right now. That's all right." Light scratched his nose, walked over to the cabinet, and pulled out a cardboard box. "Sit on the table, Roll, I'll take care of your hands."

Roll did as she was told. Dr. Light dug through the box and found what looked like a pair of gloves, but they were the same material and color of Roll's skin.

"I think these are from your model," he said as he came over. Light cleaned off the tattered skin remaining, trimming it down to the wrists where the gloves would meet. He fit the gloves over Roll's skeletal hands. "Good," he said when he saw they fit. He did the same to the other hand. "Now that laser welder has to be somewhere around here. Help me look for it."

Roll jumped off the table and went to the left side of the room to rifle through boxes while Dr. Light went to the right. Most of the boxes contained circuit boards, miscellaneous electronic equipment, defunct technology, and other things that couldn't be identified by anyone else but Dr. Light. She pulled off box after box from the pile into another pile. Until she came across one marked 'Roll - Upgrade'.

Immediately she tore open the top and looked inside. Her eyes widened at the objects lying within. Several strength enhancing components, a small, tapered cannon-like object, a strange visor like helmet with green and yellow trim, and those were just the identifiable parts.

"Dr. Light, what's this?" she asked like a child asking her father.

The rotund doctor crossed the room and looked over Roll's shoulder. "Oh, dear. I had completely forgotten about that," he said disappointingly.

"What is it?"

"Well, when I first upgraded your brother, I made a second set of parts for you, as a spare, in case... in case your brother ever..." He paused and coughed to clear his throat. "You have virtually the same systems, so it was quite easy to do, but once Wily kept coming back and back, I couldn't bear the thought of that happening to you, having the responsibility of saving the world again and again, constantly putting your life at risk. So I stored them down here. And forgot about them."

Roll looked up at Dr. Light, her yellow ponytail snapping back. "Dr. Light, I need these."

"Roll, I can't..."

"We don't know where Rock is or if he made it out. If we get topside we might be surrounded by robots, and we'll have no way to defend ourselves. I need these upgrades. Please?"

"No, Roll, I can't do that to you. I can't, in good conscience, allow you to take this. Your brother does it because he has a strong sense of justice. You can't imagine what a burden it is-"

"Rock asked for the burden," Roll said. Dr. Light paused, speechless. "Why can't you do the same for me?"

Dr. Light looked up and away, lost in thought. Roll waited eagerly for his answer, gazing up at him with large, blue eyes. He scratched the back of his head and said, "Well, all the parenting books say you're supposed to treat siblings the same."

"Yay!" Roll jumped up and hugged her creator. "Thank you so much, Dr. Light."

Light hugged her back. "All right, let's find the laser welder first, get your hands back on, and then... we'll start upgrading."

* * *

"Hrummm..." Grizzled Jack shifted his square jaw around, clicking it out of place as he grinded his teeth. He had three days worth of stubble, a furred cap, and wide crazy eyes that seemed illuminated in the dark. His face was coated in a thick layer of dirt and he slowly moved the axe in his hand up and down in a dawdling chopping motion. His gray sweater was stained with dark red and brown streaks and blotches.

The two stared at Jack with scared eyes, Mega Man still in the odd position of cradling Link. Jack stepped into the room, first walking to the center and then circling around to face them, never pivoting, like a buzzard circling his prey. The two felt very small and vulnerable as Jack cast a huge sunset shadow over them.

"Well, ain't you two's funny lookin'," he snarled.

"Are you Grizzled Jack?" Link asked.

"Well, don't that beat all. Y'all done heard of me. That's exactly the way I DON'T LIKE IT." He lunged in close to their faces, his head seeming to swell up to enormous size as his eyes bugged out.

"Well," he continued. "I don't reckon you seem to be from around these here parts," Jack said as he looked Mega Man up and down. "Where you from, boy?"

"I'm from-"

"He's from outside Hyrule," Link quickly interrupted before Mega Man would start running his mouth. "Very far. Island somewhere."

"Is that so? Must have a lot of sharp corners in that there country." Jack said as he knocked on his helmet. "What's it called?"

"A helmet," Mega Man said.

"Your homeland! Boy, you sass me again, I'll take my belt to you." He grunted under his breath deeply. "You've all done worn out yer welcomes, so iffen you must be blind er jest damn stupid, yer seen the signs out there that I DON'T LIKE VISITORS!"

He switched his axe to the both hands to show that he meant business.

"Wait, wait, wait," Link said holding his hand in front of him. "We just wanted some information. We know you used to be part of the thieves' guild."

Jack stopped his axe short of thrusting forward. "Information? You... you wanna know about me?"

"Sure... I mean, yes!"

"Well..." Jack scratched his head under his cap. "Can't say I've had visitors before wantin' to know about me. Hrummm..." Jack scratched his chin as he looked up, lost in thought. "All right, sournds good. But first, we'll have some dinna. I've been starvin' all day. And get up off the floor. You two look likes you was in love or something."

Link and Mega Man stood up, Link still favoring his injured leg, as Jack pulled out a dead animal carcass from his backpack and held it up by the tail. "Here, I caught this in the woods, cook it up." He plopped the fuzzy animal on the ground in front of them with a hefty grunt. It was about three feet long with a fat and round body, marked by light-orange and black stripes.

"What?"

"Cook this up out back. There be a fire pit enna spit out thar already."

Link and Mega Man looked at each other. The corpse smelled horribly musky like it had been dead and sitting in that backpack all day. Link shrugged and moved to pick up the carcass.

"Not YOU! You..." Jack pointed at Mega Man, who returned an innocent gaze. "You," he pointed at Link, "I'm-a gonna tell my story to."

"But-"

"Yer the one who wanted the information, dintcha? Let yer friend thar cook the meal."

Mega Man protested, "But I-"

"Do it!"

Mega Man cautiously picked up the heavy animal body over his shoulder and trudged out of the cabin's front door. Going through his database looking for how to cook an animal, he walked around back and used his night vision to look for a "fire pit". There was no hole where fire was coming out, but there was an area of ground saturated with ash and twigs. That would be an ideal spot for cooking an animal carcass. Above the area were two sticks propped up, holding up another stick placed horizontally.

Mega Man looked from the structure to the bloated cadaver, not quite sure how a trio of sticks could be made into a cooking device. In his time, all food was automatically prepared, freeze-dried into a compact slab, and placed in storage until someone wanted to eat. He knew people were forced to hunt and gather for food in history, but never learned the details of what they did after the hunting and gathering. In fact, he had never made a meal himself. He never needed to eat, and it was Roll's job to prepare meals.

Mega Man knelt before the ashed circle on the ground. The first step would be in creating a fire, and that would need some wood. Ah, an idea came to Mega Man. The sticks were simply placed there in preparation of needing wood. He plucked them out of the ground and laid them down. Gripping two, he began rubbing them together at super-human speed, his arms blurring blue. A thin wisp of smoke started wafting from the point of contact and soon a yellow spark ignited the wood. The robot waved his hand over the small flicker to keep it oxygenated, then brought the other wood closer to the conflagration. The wood was thick, but the fire wouldn't last long. Mega Man pulled up the animal carcass and held it close to the fire with his two hands, slowly rotating it to provide an even heating.

"Perfect," he said to himself.

Meanwhile, Grizzled Jack gingerly stepped over to his table, avoiding his own traps and making creaks in the floor. Sitting in his homemade chair he fetched a flint stone in his pocket and lit the candle on the table. "Come over here and sit up a spell," he made a 'come here' gesture with his hand. "Just plop yourself right... oh," Jack trailed off as he realized he had no chairs anywhere for Link. "Well, never mind that then."

Link kneeled on the ground next to Jack, making him slightly shorter than the woodsman. Jack picked up the pile of paper on the desk.

He said, "This here is me manifesto."

"That's a manifesto?"

"Yup, plan to send it in to the Hyrule Board of Publicworthy Items. They best publish it or else. Explains the whole thing right on down the line. Every conspiracial plot, every explanation for everything. Did you know that the King himself knows about the disappearance of cows from the farm fields down south at the ranch. They say there's people from another world out there, far away that fly in big dish-like ships and take our cows. They think it's crazy! But it ain't crazy, tis the truth! Ah've seen it."

"Uh-huh, right," Link said, trying to feign belief as best he could.

"And another thing. The water in Kakariko Pond? Well, you can better believe I ain't drinking it. They put... secret potions in there. You know what they are?"

"Er, no."

"It's a secret chemical they've been developing down in the castle dungeon. You drink it, and you become as weak and docile as a kitten. They placate you!"

"So if you don't drink the pond water, what do you drink?"

"I squeeze the juices out of every vegetable I grow meself and every animal I done hunted. Save it up, use it for rationing."

This time Link couldn't repress his disgust as he stuck his tongue out, "Blagh."

"That's good tastin', I'll tell ya whut. You ain't asked me the question yet."

"What question?"

"The question you should have been asking me from the start!"

"Uhhh... what was that question?"

"Why is the kingdom of Hyrule doing this to all its citizens?"

Link nodded in acknowledgement. Grizzled Jack stared at him with his crazy eyes. Link looked around. It seemed like Jack was waiting for him to say something. "Um... why is the kingdom of Hyrule doing this to all its citizens?"

"To control them! To keep the panic down. They're going to revolutionize society. They're going to bring forth a system to keep track of every man, woman, and child. It's all a principle of the sociological evidence we see today. The ideology of modern topicalism. The autonomous collective will enforce this philosophy and society will succumb to its advances. It's all here in chapter one." He picked up the first page. "The pre-industrial society in which we live, the physical duresses placed on the working man resulting in classification of the class struggle fall into 42 categories. Category the first-"

"Uh," Link hastily interrupted. "Is there anything in there about your time in the thieves' guild... perhaps?"

"Eh? Oh. Lemme see here..." Jack rustled through his pages, tearing through paper heedless of the organization. "Uhhh, Resolutions of the Technological Age, no...the Sophistication of the Organization-Dependent, no... forgive me, it's still a bit unfinished. Wait, maybe in here about the Strategy of Choosers Under the Beggar System. The moral code of our society demands that the working man must place a burden of his time. The oversocialization leads to poor self-esteem. This psychological manifestation of the self, heretofore known as the 'I', is a direct-"

"What about your experience in the thieves' guild. Like, when did you retire? Maybe something about Blind the Thief. I'm sure that would be a publicworthy item."

"Blind the Thief? Feh, that lowlife couldn't steal an apple from a tree. After he disappeared, I stayed up here and the whole gang moved down south to the desert valley. Never seen 'em since and don't care to."

Link's eyes lightened up as he finally got the information he wanted. "Ah."

"Now where was I? The thought and behavior tracts generate a feeling of self-shamedness, a spiral of shame, if you will, that can... have..." Jack trailed off as his eyes became blank, staring at the doorway. Link turned and saw Mega Man there holding the now cooked animal.

"I believe it's been cooked thoroughly enough," he said as he held up the smoking carcass with both hands. The fur had been left on during the cooking, giving it a horrid smell and a charred outer shell. Its organs had also not been removed, meaning the body had bloated up and bubbled and oozed over the cracks in the flesh

"You... you... you... You didn't clean it or gut it or skin it even! I spent three days hunting that thing!" His voice rose with each description until it shook the cabin.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know how to cook-"

Grizzled Jack jumped from the table, overturning it, making a loud crash. "YOU'VE WASTED THREE DAYS WORTH OF MAH FOOD! GET OUT!"

Link hunkered down to avoid the flying table and made a beeline for the door. Mega Man stood there dumbfounded, still holding the steaming animal, until Link grabbed his shoulder and pulled him with, making him drop the carcass. Jack began throwing a tantrum, flailing his arms and legs, kicking and hitting anything that was in range - the wall, the table. Both Mega Man and Link looked up at the ceiling where the blades began clinking together faster and faster from the action under them. The candle spilled on the ground rolled next to a dry piece of uprooted wood, starting it on fire. The flames spread quickly over the dry wooded cabin.

"Time to go," Link said hastily. Grizzled Jack continued screaming and bellowing like an angry bear as the two heroes hotfooted it out of the house.

 **Next Chapter: Side Quest**


	8. Side Quest

"By the goddesses, where in the world did you learn to cook like that? They do eat where you come from, don't they?"

"Sure, but the food comes pre-cooked."

"Pre-cooked? How does that work."

"Well, it's a... it's complicated," Mega Man stopped himself before he launched into another long speech that Link wouldn't understand.

"Sounds like people have it a lot easier there. All your food is pre-made, your homes are constructed better."

"Yes, it is," Mega Man said, as he looked at the sun rising over Kakariko Pond. The orange hues creeping over the trees of the Lost Woods danced along the lake's surface like a million diamonds rolling on a blue plate of glass. A jumping trout broke the surface in the middle of the water, grasping for a fly hovering above. His return to the lake created an ever-resonating flow of beautiful ripples. "But we don't have this."

The duo continued down south. Their previous location and the expanse of Hyrule meant they were essentially going from one end of the land to the other. The journey was long and arduous, but the area they trekked through was one of the more peaceful regions - few monsters or creatures lurking in between the thinly spaced oak trees.

The conversations were still sparse though. Both were still unsure of each other, both were still sizing each other up. Mega Man knew that Link had a distaste for him and didn't want the robot anywhere near him. That sort of sensation was understandable, but it didn't make the walk pleasant. Link had no idea who this Mega Man was and the sorcery surrounding him was like nothing he had ever seen or heard of. His initial cautiousness had not been assuaged in anyway. Plus his foreign manners were constantly getting them in trouble and getting in his way. He was a stranger forced along his journey.

No, Link had no reason to trust him, and didn't see why he should. He had done nothing for him. Nothing related to the prophecy, nothing helpful. He was just a burden he had to shoulder for some reason the powers that be deemed necessary.

The landscape began to slope upwards into a gentle hill. Upon reaching the peak, they spied a small isolated house down below in the valley.

"Odd place for a house," Link stated.

"Unusual? Couldn't it be a farm?"

"Everywhere's a farm... unless you live in the village. Come on, let's go in." Link started sliding down the hill at a brisk pace, letting gravity do the work for him.

"Whoa, wait, do you know these people?" Mega Man followed him down, holding his arms out to keep balance.

"No, no idea," Link said as he reached the bottom of the hill. "Why? Is this another foreign custom?"

"No, it's called common decency and right to privacy. Where every human has the right keep any information they want secluded and protected and..."

Link just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, here, every house is essentially open for others. Most don't mind too much, they're glad of the company. Besides, the people are pretty friendly to me, given that I saved their lives."

Link stepped up to the door and opened it without a second thought as Mega Man came up behind him. Mega Man stopped himself from protesting further, reminding himself that he was in a foreign country - a VERY foreign country - and customs were different here. Meanwhile, he noticed the house's front lawn was covered by bushes in a very erratic pattern, scattered out here and there instead of nice simple rows. He doubted this was a farm, but the purpose of its location he couldn't discern. He turned back to Link, but he was already through the door. The robot quickly followed.

Link approached a woman standing in the house next to the dining table. "Oh, thank the Triforce, someone's here. Can you help me? My lawn has an infestation of buzzblobs out there. I need someone to get rid of them for me. If you do it, I'll give you something good."

"No problem, ma'am." Link passed Mega Man and exited the house. Mega Man looked between the two and followed him outside.

"Well, that was an unusual exchange," Mega Man commented.

"Eh, that's how things get done around here. People do things for other people and they reward you. It's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me, as long as it's not too tough." Link gazed out from the steps of the house, analyzing the landscape. "So where are these buzzblobs the lady was talking about?"

"I don't even know what a buzzblob is."

"Little green critters you see around. They look cute but they pack a mean wallop." Link stepped down and started walking through the lawn.

Mega Man looked around one more time. "All I see are bushes. Perhaps the lady's eyesight isn't all that good."

"Yeah, she must be senile or something." Link theorized that she was mistaking the bushes for buzzblobs. They were about the same color and Mega Man was probably right about her eye acuity. He withdrew his sword from the scabbard, gleaming white in the sunlight, and padded up to a bush. "I'll just cut these bushes down so I can get that reward." Link swung his sword against the shrub.

Link stiffened up as he was enveloped in a yellow electrical aura. Spikes of hair stung out from under his cap as he gritted his teeth in surprise and pain. The bush's leaves fell away, revealing a tall green blobby looking thing with two small footpods and large black eyes, making contact with the sword. Its two single eyes were furrowed in anger.

The electrical current stopped and Link fell back, smoke tufting out from his head, his eyes spiraling around in confusion. "I... found one," he said weakly.

"They must be hiding in the bushes," Mega Man commented.

"Yes... I figured... that out," Link said as he slumped back in exhaustion.

The buzzblob began wiggling around the yard, its jelly-like body wobbling back and forth as it shuffled its little footpods around the grass, perambulating without destination. Mega Man approached the creature guardedly while Link recovered and brushed himself off. "It must dole out some kind of electrical current when threatened, like an electrical eel. But how does-" Mega Man reached out his hand towards the buzzblob. It did not shy away, so he touched it on its head.

Electricity began flowing through Mega Man's systems. He arched his back in pain as all he could see was bright white surrounding him. "RRRRRAAAAGHHHHH!"

Link came to his senses as he heard the scream. He saw the blue solider flashing in a brighter white than he had seen, electrical arcs running up and down his body. "No!" he shouted. He reached into his pack and pulled out his hookshot. As soon as he attached it to his arm he aimed for the buzzblob and fired the trigger. The spring-loaded grappling spear shot forward and hit the green monster, pushing him back.

Mega Man swayed back and forth, dizzy and barely conscious. Sparse tendrils of lightning still skimmed over his form.

Link approached him. "Wow, are you okay? Usually it's just a big shock. He must've-"

"My system..."

"What?"

"My system." Mega Man grunted and slowly held up his right forearm. Link could see some sort of small gauge - a bar that was half-yellow, half-black. "That... that... thanks." Link looked up at Mega Man's face. "If you hadn't done that, it would've killed me."

Link paused, a little stunned. "No problem."

Mega Man held up his indicator to Link. "This is my power level, it goes down every time I take energy damage. If it goes to zero, I die. I can usually recharge it with energy capsules I find from other robots. But I don't expect I'll find any here."

"So you have to be careful, because there's no way to recharge."

"Exactly."

"All right, we'll have to be careful about that then. I guess you'll have to sit this mission out."

Mega Man looked over to a nearby tree with an unusual base branch jutting out. "Perhaps not." Mega Man walked over to the tree and broke off the bough, wielding it like an oversized sword.

"You set 'em up, I'll knock 'em down?" Link said as he held up his hookshot.

"Sounds like a plan," Mega Man agreed.

Link fired the trigger, and the hookshot's end latched onto the bush, uprooting it swiftly. Two buzzblobs wiggled away like frightened slow-moving rabbits. Mega Man slung his makeshift bludgeoner over to maneuver the little monsters away from the yard, using the soft leafy end to coax them away. They continued in this pattern for the rest of the day.

* * *

Zelda stood at the open door and knocked on it. Horace looked up from his table where he was sorting miscellaneous paperwork by candlelight. "What? Oh, Princess Zelda."

"Captain, I need the key to the royal documents vault."

"Oh." Horace's mouth upturned in a grimace of slight annoyance as he set his work down and fished into his pocket for his ring of keys. "Shouldn't you have access everywhere in the castle. Don't you have a key already?"

"Well, yes, but I seem to have misplaced it."

"Ah," he snickered. "What do you need it for?"

"I need to access information on Vizier Noktwor."

"Ah, have you found more evidence against him?"

"Perhaps. You know about the thread I found on the tile hole?"

"Right."

"Well, it was purple."

"...And?"

"And the vizier wears a purple robe."

"So does the chairman. So does the attendant. So does the cook. So do I when I have my dress uniform."

Zelda opened her mouth to protest, but then shut it and looked down at the floor. Horace stood up and approached her.

"Look, detective work isn't an instantaneous thing. It takes a lot of patience and the work is dirty and boring. Maybe you'd be happier doing something else, and leaving this to us?"

"Don't presume to tell me what I can and can't do, thank you very much. I am going to help solve this."

"But we already have people working on it. Link is even out there right now, doing field investigation."

"I said I am completely capable of doing my own investigation," she claimed as she swiped the keys out of his hand.

Horace sighed disgruntledly and threw up his arms. "Fine, enjoy."

Zelda took the keys and headed off without another word. She was doing just fine on this. She had already discovered the method that the pendants were taken out of the castle. She had discovered a possible link to the suspect. Everything was going swimmingly, she thought. She certainly wasn't having difficulty and she wasn't bored or dirty. She was going to show everyone that she could do this, that she wasn't just another helpless girl, subservient to everyone's will. She was an independent thinker. She was just the same as everyone else. How dare they try to condescend her just because she was royalty.

Zelda gingerly stepped down the stairs leading to the document vault in the castle basement, a significantly dirtier section of the castle. The wooden door was the only security here, but who would want to steal payroll logs?

Zelda inserted the key in and opened the door. Looking inside, she saw the vizier himself sitting at a desk, looking at a stack of yellow papers. He looked up suddenly with a surprised gasp on his droll little mouth.

"Princess Zelda? What are you doing down here?"

"I... what are you doing down here?" she quickly retorted.

"I was going over some records of law. There's a dispute over some land near Lake Hylia."

"Oh..." she responded sheepishly, although still suspicious whether it was a conjured excuse. "I'm checking some employment records," she said after quick, careful thought, excluding important details.

"Oh, very well then. I'll just leave you alone then." Noktwor took his pile of papers and headed out of the room.

Zelda eyed him suspiciously. His leaving so suddenly seemed so unusual and his reaction was no redeeming factor either. If only she had some hard evidence that he was the thief, she could put him in the dungeon in an instant. She moved to the personnel records and looked up the vizier's name.

* * *

"Go on. Shoo! Get!" Mega Man uttered as he brushed off the last two blobby creatures. The lawn was now completely clear of buzzblobs, as well as bushes. Their gravesites were marked by small stumps and collections of leaves.

Link replaced his hookshot in his bag and sauntered over to Mega Man. "Well, that looks to be all of them," he said, overlooking the yard. "Come on."

Link didn't see the wandering chicken that had come out to the front yard. He turned around and set his foot down on the tubby bird, making a loud "BWAGACK!"

"AHH!" Link screeched and zoomed past Mega Man and ran behind a large oak tree.

Mega Man's eyes scrunched in extreme curiosity. "What? It's a chicken."

"It's a cucco!"

Mega Man watched the frightened chicken hop away to a distant corner of the grass. "It's running away. Kinda like you."

"You don't know what those things can do if you get them angry, man. They've got powers or something. They all know where the others are. You mess with one of them, they all get on you. They're mad."

Mega Man was thinking someone else was mad, but held his tongue. "Well, it's gone way over there, so I think you're safe."

Link stepped out from behind the tree, his eyes wide and darting around. "You sure?"

"I'm looking at it right now. It's way over there."

"Okay, let's go."

Link cautiously moved towards the house, stepping on his tiptoes. "Be careful, don't make a sound."

Once again, the customs of this land confused him, but he did as he was told and made his way up the steps and walked through the door. Once inside and safe, Link approached the old woman. "We've done as you asked. The buzzblobs are gone." As well as your greenery, thought Link, but them's the breaks.

"Splendid. I'll give you a special reward for this." She pulled out a medium-sized canvas bag behind her.

Link beamed with delight as he held up the bag with one hand like a trophy. "I got bombs! I can use these to damage enemies and knock holes in some walls."

Link stopped as he saw Mega Man glared at him inquisitively.

"Why do you do that?" the robot asked.

"Er... I don't know, it's just my thing."

Link placed the bag in his knapsack sheepishly and the two walked out the door. "Back on the quest," Link commented. The landscape here continued gently sloping downward as they continued south.

Behind them, a small buzzblob poked its head out from the horizon of the hill, its large black eyes peering at the pair. It began to shuffle down after them.

 **Next Chapter: Swordfish**


	9. Swordfish

Mega Man noticed the dirt under his treaded feet gradually turning to sand. The temperate climate was also starting to increase in heat. "We're getting closer to the desert."

"Yeah, not much farther now," Link commented.

"This land doesn't seem spaced out enough to have a desert climactic zone so close to a temperate zone."

"Uhhhhh... well, the plateaus there prevent a lot of precipitation from coming down and uh... I don't know, I'm not a weatherseid."

"A weatherseid?"

"A fortune teller who specializes in telling the upcoming weather."

"Ah, a meteorologist."

"A what?"

"We have the same thing where I come from, only we call them meteorologists, and... well, yes, that's all." Mega Man was about to say they used actual science to predict weather, but he thought that might seem insulting.

"Do they do anything with meteors?"

"No, it's just a name."

"Why do they call them meteorologists if they don't do anything with meteors?"

"Our language is a very strange one."

"You should try reading ancient Hylian some time."

Soon they entered a steep valley. The ground was now pure sand and the snaking path was dotted with copper-green boulders on the landscape. Crows and vultures glided in the distance, searching for carcasses to feed on. Luckily, they weren't circling, as far as they could see.

Link took an unbeaten path into a claustrophobic crevice in a plateau wall. The high cliffs closed off the light coming down into a width barely big enough for a person. Mega Man looked around warily. "This is the entrance to the thieves guild?" he asked.

"Last time I was here, it was. There was a small set up of thieves here, they gave me some rupees. No idea why, though," he commented as he squeezed around a corner.

Mega Man's strong sense of justice was getting to him. He had to resist the urge to play the enforcer and arrest every last one of them he saw. The customs were different here. The laws were different. And he was nowhere near an authority here. Yet, they didn't seem to have any police force at all.

"So, if there's a thieves guild here, why don't we call the authorities and have them arrested?"

"Ha, they'd be out of here so fast before you even finished telling a soldier. They have ears everywhere. Besides, they're not much threat. Not in the grand scheme of things, at least."

Link adjusted the sword at his side, pulling it closer into his body. He side-shuffled into the initial gap spackled with jagged outcroppings of stone.

"Watch yourself," he said as he switched back to a normal gait.

Mega Man turned to the side and followed Link in. The temperature was much cooler in this ravine, due to the shadow. A crow perched over the edge high above looked down upon them, but remained as still as a statue.

Link set his boot on a projection from the wall, climbing over a break too small to walk through. Finally, they reached a small cul-de-sac ending the crevice.

"Oh, it's you again," Link said acerbically.

Mega Man couldn't see from behind Link's body who he was talking to, even as he tried to peer over his shoulder. All he could notice was a slice of sunshine permeating the pit around them. He squeezed between the cliff and Link and saw a middle-aged man with thick jet black hair and an equally thick mustache standing in front of a wooden door. He said nothing to Link's comment.

"Who is this?" Mega Man asked.

"I met him before, an ex-member of the thieves guild. I guess they let him back in." Link approached the man. "Where'd your sign go?"

The man said nothing.

"Hey, you remember me, right? You opened a treasure chest for me?" Link waited a few seconds for a response and received none. He crossed his arms, thinking about what to do next.

"Maybe he's deaf," Mega Man suggested.

"No, he's talked to me before. Come on, man, I kept it a secret, just like you said. Can you let us in?"

Again, no response. The silent thief merely looked at Link and cocked his head slightly, like he was going through the motions of talking without actually talking.

"We're not gonna make trouble. We just need some information. It's important."

Nothing.

"Please?"

Nothing.

Link turned back to Mega Man and started digging in his pockets. The blue robot said, "Are you thinking of climbing over?"

"No, actually, I was thinking bribery." He fished out a set of purple gems from his knapsack and presented them to the silent treasure opener. "Would sixty rupees change your mind?"

Mega Man, although surprised by this tactic, realized the logic right away. Nonetheless, the stratagem was wasted.

"Try more," Mega Man advised.

"Okay," Link gritted his teeth as he poked around for more. "A hundred rupees. Come on man, you gotta take it."

The middle-aged man remained as silent and steadfast as ever.

"Is that a lot?" Mega Man added as a side-note.

"I thought it was," Link said slightly astonishedly. He put the rupees back in when he saw the thief was strangely uninterested.

"Perhaps it's some sort of secret phrase," Mega Man suggested. "We use them a lot in my world."

"Oh, yeah, um," Link tried to think of potential secret words to a thief. "'Blind'... 'rupees', 'Chris sent me'..."

"God, debug, admin, root, password, password-one, one-two-three-four-five, one-four-seven, love, secret, default," Mega Man chimed in.

"Getting a little obscure there."

"These are the most common passwords in my time."

Link shook his head dismissively. Nothing they said made any difference in the middle-aged man's expression or body language. He pondered the obstacle in his way. He was no stranger to such things, but they were usually in the form of a wall or locked door. Obviously he couldn't use violence against an ordinary citizen, especially not one who had helped him in the past. Those who seemed no threat often were the biggest ones, he thought as he remembered Blind's disguise. Hitting a locked door never helped either. Maybe a threat might make him budge though.

"All right, buddy, if you don't let us through, me and my pal here are gonna have to get tough."

Nothing.

"You hear me?" Link stepped back into a battle stance and held the hilt of his sword still in its scabbard. He glowered menacingly at the thief as Mega Man looked aghast.

"You're not thinking of using violence against him?"

"No, of course not," he whispered, "Just play along," he said as he winked. Mega Man got the idea and stepped back, brandishing his Mega Buster.

"Step back or we will open fire," Mega Man said forcefully.

Link muttered something about having to work on that and cautiously shuffled forward. Still holding his sword with one hand he came toe-to-toe with the unmoving thief, crouched down into a battle position. Using his other hand he slowly reached out and took hold of the silent man's shoulder. He did nothing. Gently, Link began pushing the man aside. Surprisingly, he yielded to the pressure and pleasantly shifted aside from the doorway.

Link's eyes opened with amazement as he stood back up. "Well, uh, thanks." He looked back to Mega Man. "That went pretty well," he grinned.

"Yes... it did," Mega Man responded, a little confused and a little wary.

Nonetheless, the two opened the door and entered the cliffside cavern.

* * *

"Throughout my years, I have done many things, I have helped many people. I have always been on the side of good, or at least I thought I've been. Everything I've tried to do, I've done for the good of mankind. I always thought, someday, people would rise above their violent tendencies, their primate instincts of 'kill or be killed', 'take it before someone else takes it and defend it with your life'. Greed, avarice, selfishness.

"But other people have shown me that some habits are hard to break. They are the ones who make it necessary for weapons to exist in this world. Sometimes I wonder whether the existence of such weapons encourages people to use them. But perhaps not. The weapons are not to blame, it is the people who use them. People use them for their own devices, to further their own ends.

"Then does that make me any better than them? For I make weapons as well, to further my own ends. These ends may be noble. But does it make me any different than the madmen who wield them? The results are always the same - people get hurt, great works are demolished, resources are wasted, all because of one single man, who somehow can't be stopped. One bad apple can truly ruin a whole bunch.

"And so I make the sacrifice. I sacrifice my own work, I sacrifice my own legacy, to keep humanity going. To keep it out of tyrannical rule, to keep it out of returning to the dark ages when people fought each other over petty concerns. For some reason, we must still keep a tie to that era in order to keep it safe. Maybe it's part of human nature that can't be taken out. But why does it have to be my sacrifice?

"No, not my sacrifice. My children. My work. I wanted my creations to never know a world of hate and greed - insanity. I wanted humans to be able to accept robots as fellow partners in life. Yet some people don't agree with that, and some people take it too far. There can never be a happy medium. People can't accept such things so easily. It takes generations, and it will be a time that I won't be able to live to see.

"But it's that hope that makes me do the things that I do. That makes me sacrifice my children to serve man. To protect them. Cause they're the only ones who can do it. They're the only ones with the power to. And I'm the only one who can give them that power. I wonder why I was chosen with this 'gift'. But, for the better of humanity, I must use it. May whatever powers higher than me forgive me for what I've done.

"It was bad enough I had to make Rock into what he is today - a war machine. I gave him a taste of power. Far more than he should have gotten. Many sleepless nights I spent wondering whether he would abuse it and become far worse than those he was meant to defend against. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I feared he would become overwhelmed with it. The only thing that stopped him was his strong sense of justice, something I never imagined a robot could have with the A.I. I programmed into him. He surprised us all.

"I can only hope that his sister will be the same."

Dr. Light steadily approached the operating board, where Roll lay, his shadow covering her like a shroud. Her start-up procedure was about to complete its process. Her eyes began to flutter erratically. Suddenly, they burst open, pupils dilated, glazed at the ceiling. The first thing she looked at was Dr. Light.

"Good morning, Roll," he sighed. "How do you feel?"

"I feel..." Roll flexed her arm, looking at the latex glove and arm, covered in gauntlets of armor. "...good."

 **Next Chapter: The Thieves Guild**


	10. The Thieves Guild

"All right, Roll. Try to stand up."

Roll, after readjusting to her surroundings, swung herself around and sat up on the table. "This is amazing. I suddenly have a greater sense of what is around me. Like I'm super-aware."

"You are super-aware, for lack of a better term. You needed sensory upgrades in order to properly engage in battles, like your brother. You certainly didn't need heightened perception as a housekeeper."

Roll nodded as she flexed her arms under her new body suit. The rubbery feel was a little uncomfortable, but still limber and pliant. It was colored a deep lavender purple with a green stripe running down both sides of her body. On her arms, legs, and torso were thin ringlets of reflective metal, similar to medieval chain armor in a way. "This is part of the dioxin filter," she realized.

"Right, I had to make do with what I could find. There wasn't enough to cover your entire body, so I did the essential areas most likely to get hit."

"I understand." Roll continued her inspection and looked around her person for the rest of her new features. She found two pistol-like weapons in holsters at her sides. Ah, yes, the best part. She drew them out to take a look at them. They had a thin squarish barrel with and treaded handle for gripping. Very streamlined. "These look like modified laser welders."

"Laser welders AND proton fusers. Sort of a hybrid really. Take a shot."

Dr. Light stepped out of the way, gesturing to a metal panel at the end of the room. Roll held out the gun in front of her and fired. A sunray of light flared up at the barrel and a short pink laser beam resounded with a vibrant PING as it shot from the gun and hit the panel in the center, causing a flared singe mark. Roll grinned as she admired her new weapon. It was lightweight, and she experienced almost no kickback, much smoother than her brother's buster. And it made a cool sound when you shot it.

"Sweeeeet."

"Oh, my goodness, I almost forgot." Dr. Light reached out and touched Roll's head. Her vision was suddenly masked by a green tint.

"Hey, what th-"

"The laser pistol has a rather nasty flare-up, if you didn't notice. Over-exposure will damage your optical calibration. So you need to wear this special tinted visor when in battle."

Roll reholstered her pistol and felt up around her eyes. There was indeed a thin green strip of plastic covering her eye line, fitting to her face. That wasn't all, though. The visor connected to some device around her head. She felt around, finding it placed tightly around the ears and just above her neck. It seemed to consist of a strip of metal covering the back of her head, tapering off at her ears where her visor was attached, and a strip of metal curving over, coming down to her forehead in the center. Apparently, there was still a small outlet for her ponytail to go through. "What is this, some sort of helmet?"

"Exactly. Some sort of helmet. I didn't have the materials for a full helmet, but you needed some cerebral protection, so I made this sort of 'skeletal helmet'. I'm sorry it's so piece-meal."

Roll smiled and put a hand on Dr. Light's shoulder. "It's great. I shouldn't have any problems with this. Thank you."

Dr. Light shyly smiled. "Well, are we ready to make it up to the surface?"

Roll took out her gun and spun it in her finger. "Let's."

She kicked the metal door open and jumped out. Her new battle protocols sprang into action, running over all elements of this escort exercise. She held one of her guns straight ahead of her, then whipped around behind, pointing it up at the ceiling, looking in all possible directions for hostiles. She gestured to the doctor that it was safe to come out into the corridor. In this normal walking area of the basement, the walls retained their gray concrete brick structure, reinforced to act as a fall-out shelter should the need arise. The lack of wear and tear on the hallway indicated that no one had arrived down here. Taking the lead, Roll shuffled down towards the exit, keeping her gun ready in both hands, darting her eyes in all directions, her ears attuned to every little sound, everything still strangely tinted neon green.

"So far, so good," Roll commented.

Dr. Light huffed along behind, swinging his arms energetically in the air. He wasn't out of shape for his age, but he wasn't running any marathons on an engineer's diet.

"Phew. Let's... go up this stairwell... It's quicker," he panted with his hands on his knees.

Roll looked to her left at the metal door, peering into its tiny window for anything suspicious. The stairway looked clean, no evidence of any robot masters trying to force their way in, but she couldn't see up to the top. It was another risk she was going to have to take.

"Here we go." Roll regripped her laser pistol and popped the door open. "Yaargh!" she primally screamed as she barreled up the stairs. With a final burst of speed at the top, she jump-kicked the door open, rolled onto one knee, and aimed her gun ahead. Her eyes scowled with fortitude and eagerness.

It was quiet, too quiet. Roll cautiously kept her eyes peeled as she stood up, searching and listening for signs of action. Rubble and debris littered the area, pieces of wall were completely torn down, unveiling the rooms beyond. Even the ceiling had jagged holes punched through. But the only motion was just from a broken off pipe dripping water from the second story. Their home was smashed to ruins, but there wasn't a trace of the guilty.

Roll clicked off the visor and it swiped away back into her helmet. "There's nothing here," she said frustratedly as Dr. Light finished climbing the stairs after her.

"How curious," Dr. Light breathed. "What could Dr. Wily have wanted?"

"I don't know, but I'm willing to bet they've cooked up something. Maybe a trap."

"No, look. Ahead."

Dr. Light pointed through the wrecked house. Some rooms were destroyed but other parts of the house were untouched. "Most interesting," he said. "Surely if they had meant to destroy us or destroy the house, they would have done so in a better fashion."

"Dr. Wily's never attacked you before, he's always gone for global domination. I'm beginning to wonder why this time should be any different." Roll looked closer at the damage. "It's almost as if he's created a path towards something, but for what?"

"Well, we won't know until we search. Come along, Roll," Dr. Light said as he took the lead.

"Aw, I got all upgraded for nothing," Roll said as she followed him.

* * *

Mega Man and Link entered the rocky cavern where the thieves guild members resided, expecting to be met with hostile forces. After all, they were on the side of the good and noble and the thieves were on the side of the... not-so-good and less noble. However, no one seemed particularly interested in them at first. There was a table set up where four people were playing cards, a barrel of ale next to them. Two others were off in the corner by the quote-unquote beds talking and looking over a piece of paper. Another was sharpening his knife on a nearby grindstone, embers sparking off the wide, short blade. Once their eyes adjusted to the sunlight, however, they realized all were now staring at them.

"Reminds me a little of the pub," Mega Man commented.

"This ain't no pub," Link said.

The man sharpening his knife stopped and sauntered over to the two. He was awkwardly lanky and had a weasely accent. "Well, i' looks like you two appear to be lost, li'l boys. We eat li'l boys 'ere, you know."

"We're not little boys," Link said confidently, despite that he was a good deal shorter.

"Don't you know where you are? You're in the bleedin' thieves guild headquarters, the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule."

Link smirked. "My good sir, I know the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule. I've been in the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule. I've destroyed the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule. And this, sir, is not the most dangerous place in all of Hyrule."

The tall thief threw back his head and laughed. "Hah, hah, hah. This kid's got guts after all." The other members laughed and guffawed in their own respective corners along with him. "I know you, all right. You're that Link fellow who 'saved' Hyrule. That true? They say you're the Hero of Cataclysm's Eve. The one who wielded the Master Sword."

Link thought it best to avoid this line of questioning. "Look, we don't want any trouble," he said. "We just came here for some information."

The gangly bandit rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Well, information, eh. Well, we're always lookin' to impart our knowledge onto the minds of those less fortunate. Right, boys?" The others grunted affirmatively. Mega Man doubted they were even listening to what's going on. "Yes, I believe we can stroike a bargain."

Mega Man poked into the conversation. "Would sixty rupees be enough?"

Link gave Mega Man a hateful, frustrated look as the bandit roared in laughter, throwing his mouth open wide with his hands on his hips. "Har, har, har, har, har! Who is this, your financial advisor? Har, har, har! Sixty? Try 600?"

Link's eyes opened wide at this number.

He continued. "And that's just the intr'duct'ry price. I don't even know wot you wanna know yet."

Link whispered to Mega Man. "I only have 500 on me," he winced. Monsters were in short supply in this area and the economy was tight enough he wouldn't be able to borrow from anybody. He wasn't keen on the idea of going on a rupee hunt.

"Uh, I'm a little short right now," Link grinned sheepishly. "Maybe we can work something out?"

Mega Man said, "Perhaps we could arrange a line of credit."

"Credit? Wot's credit?"

"Well, it's-"

"'Ow 'bout that fancy helmet on yer 'ead there," he pointed at Mega Man's head. "Look's like it'd fetch a fair bit o' wealth."

The brigand, quick as a cat, filched the helmet off of Rock's head and placed it on his own.

Mega Man reached up to his head, slightly embarrassed by his unruly helmet hair. "Hey, that's mine!"

The robber turned around to his mates and began waddling around with Mega Man's bright blue helmet ridiculously clashing with his drab clothes. "'Ey, gents. Lookit me, I'm a captain of the royal guard." The others laughed at his antics.

"Yoink!" Mega Man jumped up behind him and snatched the helmet back from him, placing it on his head.

"'Ey, audacious li'l bugger." The man raised his hand to strike him.

Link immediately stepped in, seeing that Mega Man was in trouble again, though not by his own doing this time. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Mega Man held his hands out in a gesture of peace. "We didn't come here for trouble."

"Well, you got trouble, blokes." He took a swing at Mega Man which he easily dodged.

"That's it," the robot said. "You are under arrest for assault, burglary, and intent to commit these acts." Mega Man grabbed the man's hand and spun him around, bending him over forwards in a submitted position. He turned to his companion. "Link, do you have some rope?"

Suddenly, a large rock bashed Mega Man in the head on the side, surprising him and causing him to lose his grip on his captor. "Aaah!" he said as he tumbled away. He felt the side of his head for damage. He looked up and saw one of the thieves standing on a rock ledge above them.

"Boys, let's rumble," the lanky man redrew his sharpened knife and made for Mega Man. His knife was hit by a boomerang slicing through the air. He drew his hand back in pain and shock.

Link caught the boomerang as hit came back to him. "That's not a knife, buddy." He withdrew his sword. "This is a knife."

"That's a sword."

"Close enough." Link lunged forward. All the thieves broke out of their stasis and jumped into the fracas, blocking Link off from Mega Man and his attackers. Link held up his shield to defend against their various weapons like knives, chains, and lead pipes.

Mega Man found the cockney thief coming at him, fueled by his rage. "I'll do you a trick, mate." He tossed his knife from one hand to the other menacingly.

"Your skills at magic will not stop me." Mega Man threatened. Of course, his reminder of the first law was running through his head. Although he couldn't attack, he could defend. And defend he did. As he brandished his knife, Mega Man parried his thrusts with his metal plated arms. The screeching, scraping of metal against metal echoed in the cavern; men winced from the sound.

"Aaargh," the thief screamed in frustration. "Aren't you the fast one."

"My reaction time is .02 seconds, thirty-five times more than a human. I am only slowed by my movement," he smiled.

"Roit, whatever."

Meanwhile, Link hunkered down under his shield while the guild members relentlessly pounded him, occasionally popping out to swing his sword at them. "Back off!" he shouted. Link fingered his boomerang again as blows rained down on him. Waiting for the right moment, he jumped out and threw it forward. It hit one swinging a chain in the head, stunning and throwing him back a bit. This would take forever, Link grumbled to himself, and his poor shield couldn't take this kind of abuse. Holding his sword behind him tighter, he concentrated, gathering up magic energy in the blade. A star-like sparkle scurried up the blade, sparking at the tip. The blade gleamed like ethereal silver with magic power. With an intense shout he spun around, holding out his sword. Magic energy billowed out in a whirlpool of force, blowing back everyone surrounding him, throwing them on their backs.

Mega Man grappled with the lanky man, not applying lethal pressure to the man's arms, just holding them at bay.

"Bloody... " he grumbled. "Marcus!" he shouted as he looked up. "Get down here and help!"

Mega Man looked up and saw the man who had thrown the boulder earlier, getting his club out and preparing to jump down on top of him. The robot quickly moved his feet and pulled his opponent around so they switched places. Marcus came down on the thief's head, screaming bloody murder. Mega Man let go and the two collapsed on top of each other, both of them knocked out.

Mega Man and Link looked around. The thieves were strewn about on the floor of the cavern. Mega Man dusted off his hands. "Well, it's just as good as an arrest."

"Yeah, except now we've got no leads. We're stuck. I hate that."

"Over here," came a meek, raspy voice from up above.

The two looked around for the source of the voice. Link pointed up to a previously unseen alcove near the ceiling. "Up there."

"I'm going to tie up these guys so they don't get away."

Link was about to protest, but figured this was as good an opportunity as any to rid Hyrule of one of its cancers. He would let the nearest royal soldier know about the treasure of criminals here.

He left Mega Man to find some rope and headed to the back of the room and up a ramp to a tiny little ledge. A wizened old man with white hair and a bald head covered in liver spots sat on a woven carpet. Some knick-knacks and a bookshelf were around him, making it seem like this was his room. Link had to crawl on hands and knees to enter the room proper.

"You are the Hero of Cataclysm's Eve," the old man said, as if recognizing him or acknowledging him. "And you seek the pendants."

A lead! He _was_ on the right track. "Yes, do you know where they are?"

"Sure, they're right here."

"...What?"

The old man reached into a wicker jar beside him, opened the lid, and pulled them out. There they were, all three of them. A red, a green, and a blue medallion, carved with their respective crests, each attached to a small gold chain.

"It's you ... who has the pendants? And you're giving them to me?" Link asked incredulously. Link thought he would have to quest through temples and worlds and gather items and defeat a final overlord, who was apparently this old geezer. "What? Why?"

"To get you here. I needed the Hero of Cataclysm's Eve."

"For what? How did you get the pendants in the first place?" Link couldn't for one second believe that this grandpa could've infiltrated the palace vault.

"I'm old, but I'm quite powerful in the underworld. I have... connections."

Link growled. If this decrepit old fogey could get a hold of the pendants, then security at the castle needed a major overhaul. He would have to let Zelda know when he returned. How safe could the Triforce be? "Do you know what you've done? Just to get me here?"

"I've opened your eyes to the mirror."

"The mirror?" Link couldn't take any of this pretentious existentialism. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't bring you in right now."

"Because I have information. Information that is vital to the fate of Hyrule."

Link didn't believe him for a second and glowered at him irritably. But, apparently, his quest was over so there was really no reason not to indulge him for a second. "Fine, what is it?"

"The Triforce... has a fourth piece."

"What?" Link didn't know whether to laugh or drop his jaw. "What do you mean there's a fourth piece?"

"Just that. There are truly four pieces to the Triforce."

"That's ridiculous. There's only three. That's why they call it a **TRI** force. Not a Quadforce."

"There are only three that you know of."

"There's courage, wisdom, and power. What's the fourth one supposed to represent? Cleanliness?"

"Who knows? Serenity, strength, honor, endurance. The answer may be on this," he said as he produced a piece of cloth from another basket. "It was found in a treasure chest that wandered up on shore. Here, this shows the Triforce as one whole golden triangle."

Link leaned closer to the outstretched cloth and looked. Sure enough, the sketching depicted four triangles of the Triforce coming together to form a whole, surrounded by runic markings that Link couldn't read.

Looking up to the old man, he said, "Even if I believed you, what am I supposed to do with it?"

"What else? Go find it."

"What for? No one's using it." Initially, Link would have jumped at the chance for another adventure, especially after this one's anti-climax, but he could have plastered a wall with his skepticism. "If it's been lost for so long, no one knows where it is anyway, so why bother?"

"But they will. Some day, some where, some time when you can't stop it. Think of what the Triforce can do now. Now think of what it can do when it is complete."

Link stopped in his tracks. It was true. Some point in the future, the fourth piece would be found and who knows whose hands it would end up in. Despite his own misgivings, Link was going to have to research this for himself. It did seem like there was the Triforce was missing a piece in the middle, where another triangle could go.

"Well, thanks for the info." _Not_ , Link thought.

"One more thing," the old man interrupted. He produced from yet another basket a small copper mushroom. "This will aid you in your quest, I know."

"Gee, thanks, you're just full of goodies, aren't you." Link took the mushroom and put it in his pouch.

"Hurry, I sense that great danger is waiting to be unleashed."

 _Yeah, yeah,_ Link thought, _what else is new_. Link stood up as well as he could and crawled back down to the cavern floor. Mega Man was tying up the last of the unconscious thugs and placing them against the wall.

"Did he have anything useful?" he asked.

"Well, yes and no. I've got the pendants back, but he said that there's a fourth piece of the Triforce."

"What's a Triforce?"

"It... it's complicated." Link didn't want to have to answer a lot of questions about Hylian mysticism and back story. "It's a holy artifact of Hyrule. Here's a picture." Link handed him the cloth. "I think it's bunk. He says that thing is supposed to be millennia old. And the story he gave me was ridiculous."

Mega Man took a closer look using some of his visual receptor plug-ins.

"I believe he's telling the truth," he said. "The carbon decay and degrade of the material and ink confirm that this was created about 80,000 years ago."

"How do you know that?"

"Primarily, my spectroanalyzer, but I have used some other optical examiners built in."

Link didn't really know what all that meant, so he just shrugged it off and took back the cloth. Mega Man's verdict didn't add to the authenticity in his mind. "I can't believe he dragged me from place to place searching for the pendants, only to just give them to me, and tell me there's some fake Triforce piece out there."

"The cloth is real though."

"Oh, it's ridiculous to even think about," Link said as he marched out of the cavern. "If this Triforce piece has existed for so long then-"

"NOW!"

Suddenly, the two were covered in a rope net. "What th'-" Link exclaimed. The shock and weight knocked him down, trapping him tighter in.

"Do it, Gus!"

Just as Link was about to draw his sword and cut through the ropes a shining pink translucent glow surrounded them. The glow accumulated into a glass-like shield around them, solidifying with a metallic shink.

Link cut through the net with his sword as Mega Man ripped it apart. Link thrust into the pink glass. Solid as a rock. He looked up to see who his captors were. Ungar, Gus, and a host of others from the Card Club Mafia, were standing around them, gloating.

Ungar strutted up to their prison and peered in. "Nice magic barrier, don'tcha think?" he said as he tapped on the glass. "Good for keeping little rats in their cages." He came eye-to-eye with Link in a fearsome gaze.

 **Next Chapter: The Fight Scene**


	11. The Fight Scene

"There you are, my dear," Impa said as she turned down the bed. "Everything's ready for bed dear."

Zelda peered down at the documents on her dresser. "I'm not ready for bed yet, Impa."

"But dear, it's extremely late, you've been up trying to discover this mystery for hours. Maybe a fresh start is the thing you need," her caretaker said in a motherly tone.

"Maybe, but I'm not ready to give up yet tonight," she said resolutely. "Thank you though, you can leave."

Impa folded her hands, with a worried expression on her face. "Well, all right, you can blow the candles out when you're ready. Pleasant dreams, dear."

"Good night, Impa."

The corpulent housekeeper shuffled out of Zelda's room, sadly and quietly shutting the door behind her. Impa meant well, but she still thought of Zelda as a child. That irritated her to no end, but Impa had been with her all her life, so it was hard to get mad at her. Tonight, her mind was already in analyzing mode, and sleep would interrupt her thought flow. She walked over to her dresser and looked down at her three documents. These three, little documents that seemed like three pieces of a puzzle without a picture or the 997 other pieces. The first was a payroll account for the vizier for last year, combined with his listed expenses. Looking at it superficially, there was no discernable pattern, unless you combined the dates with the charges. Every two weeks, Noktwor withdrew no less than 50 rupees from his expense account. No charges in between that. Rather unusual behavior, but nothing incriminating, obviously. The only thing Zelda was suspicious of was if Noktwor was using the money for work-related activities and not skimming off the top.

The second most important paper was the vizier's time-off sheet. This listed all his sick days and vacation days. Or rather the lack thereof. Despite all that had happened, the vizier had only taken one day off in the past 2 years. Even through the bout of Mountain Flu they had, the one where everyone was sick, the vizier had always shown up to the palace on time and well. Again, not really incriminating, but still suspicious.

But the third document was the most important. It was a carbon copy of a letter to the mayor of Kakariko village. Basically, it was a request to have a shipment of weapons, mostly spears, to be taken from the city's armory stockpile and delivered to the palace. Now, the royal palace had the right to take supplies from its smaller principalities, as long as they paid a fair price for them. But as far as she knew, the palace was in no shortage of weapons, if not spears and polearms. Plus, they were in peacetime, and no threats loomed on the horizon, so stockpiling arms seemed unusual. But the most leery element was the tone of the letter. Counselor Noktwor seemed threatening and condescending to the mayor, and also indicated that this wasn't the first time he had made this request. Such conduct was unbecoming one of her advisors she kept in trust.

But the frustrating part of it was these three documents didn't make sense together. Zelda picked up her hairbrush and turned away from the dresser. As she ran the comb through her hair she wished there was some guide she could use to tell how they might be connected or even if they were connected at all. Something that told her 'you need these seven pieces in order to solve the mystery'. Pacing along the floor, brushing her hair, she tried to connect the pieces. Maybe the vizier was trying to sell the weapons on the black market. The lack of vacation time indicated that maybe it was something he needed to be here everyday for. The organized crime syndicates in Hyrule were ruthless - miss a shipment, miss a finger. And there would be no one in the castle he could trust to carry out in his possible absence. Maybe a good way to see would be to send him out on a liaison mission. That did not explain the expense account though. Of course that could have been nothing.

A knock sounded on her door. Probably Impa again. "Come in."

Counselor Noktwor opened the door and entered the room, dressed in his formal clothing. Zelda was quite surprised and a little scared. "Princess, I apologize for the lateness of this visit."

"Is it important?"

"Extremely." He meandered forward, closing the distance between them. Zelda suddenly felt very vulnerable in just her nightgown. "It has come to my attention that you have been investigating the disappearance of the pendants as well as my collection of investigators."

"Yes," she tried to blurt out confidently.

"My advice is for you to drop it. My team will uncover the pilferer. And you are delving into things that are better left undelved." He closed the gap completely, coming nose-to-nose with her. His intimidating height left Zelda forced to look up at him. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stop it. Do I make myself clear, Princess?"

"Clear."

"Good then. Enjoy your sleep, Princess." The counselor spun on his heel and vacated Zelda's bedchamber, shutting the door behind him.

Zelda stood there, feeling very cold and weak. Somehow the gaze from that man left a chilling tremor up her spine. Her only response was to tuck under the covers of her bed and douse the light, snuggling deep under her covers. She really wished Link was here right now.

* * *

Mega Man perched on hands and knees close to the edge of the magic barrier, trying to analyze it. Link opted to sit back against it, biding his time until an appropriate moment to strike arose. Until then, he was gonna take this opportunity to rest. The thugs were plotting in a corner about what to do with them. They had taken the pair to a nearby ravine, somewhere between where the desert started and the plains ended, as they could see patches of grass poking through the sandy drifts. A charred fire pit was set in the middle, indicating this was some sort of secondary hideout for them, and that they weren't going anywhere for a while.

Mega Man turned back to Link. "Are they going to try and kill us?" he asked.

"Don't know. Kill us, hold us for ransom, eat us."

"Eat us!"

Link laughed to himself at his little joke. "No, they won't eat us. I don't know what they're going to do with us." Link wasn't particularly worried. After taking on the black wizard Ganon, a band of thieves was a minor inconvenience. Plus he already had the pendants, he just needed to deliver them back to the castle. "Did you learn anything from your topical sensors?"

"My what?"

"You know, your specko-analyzer."

"Oh, no. This material doesn't seem to register on my scanners. It's like it's not there, or it's not made of anything. In fact, the only way I can tell it is there is by touch or normal sensors. What is this composition?"

Link shrugged. "I don't know. It's magic. It's a magic barrier. I can see it just fine."

"It's not magic. Magic doesn't exist."

Link wasn't sure whether to laugh or be insulted. His homeland was founded on magic. It was one of the cornerstones of their existence. "I've got a bag full of magic powder that'll disagree with you."

"Magic is either a clever illusion or science that hasn't been understood yet."

Link shrugged. "Well, I understand that it works for me. Maybe you can't see the magic because you haven't been trained to look for it."

"I don't see how that's possible."

"Well, that's magic."

Link wrapped it up as one of unctuous mafioso came up to the trapped duo. He had a greasy goatee and a sash holding a sword at his very round waist. "What's your deal?" he asked Mega Man.

"I don't understand the question."

Two others came up behind him, trying to add to the intimidation. "What are you? Are you even human? You're obviously not from around here and you're not a monster."

"My body is composed of a mechanical and electrical device that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts of a human being, being computationally programmed through use of circuits and wiring to automatically perform complicated tasks."

"All right then... jus' wot does that mean?"

"Ah, who cares. Just tear off that armor of his, Rono."

"No, you fool, 'e 'as the strength of ten men!"

"All the more reason to get that armor."

"Get that cannon on his arm too. Could be useful."

Mega Man instinctively covered up his arm cannon.

Rono, the beefy leader scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Listen up, punk," he said to Mega Man. "You're gonna do as we say, or else your friend Link is gonna get it."

Oh, no. They had him. Mega Man couldn't allow another human being to come to harm like this, but he also couldn't disassemble himself. It was his worst nightmare - a conflict of the laws of robotics. Other machines and androids had completely lost their programming cohesion over such conflicts and had to be destroyed. "I can't take this off. It's me."

"Gus!" Rono snapped and pointed at the barrier. Gus waved his hands and the cherry barricade disappeared. Immediately, another brute grabbed Link by the collar, dragging him up, and held a knife to his neck.

"*Grrck* Don't do it, Mega Man," Link murmured.

Mega Man could feel conflict bubbling in his brain. His thought processes were getting jumbled and confused, commands running into each other. "You don't understand. I can't just take it off. It's a part of me," he pleaded. "I can't self-disassemble."

"Then I can do it for you," he said as he withdrew a long saber.

"Hey, what's that?" someone from the back yelped out.

Everyone turned and saw a little buzzblob waddling into the ravine, wide black eyes looking around curiously. "Wot th'?"

"Cute little bugger." Gus said. "Hey, little guy." He reached down to pet him.

The buzzblob furrowed its eyes angrily and sent a huge jolt of electricity into his body. "AaAaAaAaAaAaA!" he screamed and flew back several feet, smoke coming off his crispy head.

Link seized the opportunity and elbowed his captor in the stomach. He let his grip on the knife relax, as Link spun around and flipped him over his shoulder, rendering him unconscious. Withdrawing his sword he said, "What's the matter? Never seen a buzzblob before?"

"Get him!"

A rush of mobsters came at Link. Using his free hand and inertia he scaled the wall a short distance and came crashing down on the onslaught. He picked out his boomerang and slung it at the nearest one, knocking him out. Another to his right came at him with a billy club. He dodged the first two downward thrusts and parried with his sword. He noticed another slinking up behind him. Link quickly lunged forward, hitting the one ahead of him with his sword-filled fist and kicking the other in the stomach with his boot.

Meanwhile, Mega Man had dashed out of the range of the melee at the other end of the ravine. The buzzblob wobbled over to him, with a seemingly gleeful expression on his face. "Aah, go away. No, you hurt me," he said, shooing his arms. The buzzblob continued coming. Mega Man climbed a waist-high outcropping of grassy ledge to escape.

The rotund Rono came towards him, swinging his saber wildly. "I'll have your goods one way or the other. No one gets away from the Card Club."

Mega Man, desperate for an escape tactic, looked down at the buzzblob with puppy dog eyes, who was soulfully trying to totter to him.

He sat one knee on the ground and looked at the little green monster. "Hey, you wanna help?" he said, tapping into what he might say to Rush.

The blob blinked. Assumably that meant yes.

"Okay, then, go get him," he said as he pointed to the Don. "Sic him, boy!"

The buzzblob slowly toddled towards the mafioso. He easily backed away and took out a throwing knife to do away with him. "Your little pet won't do any harm to me."

Mega Man saw this and quickly thought of a plan. He switched his weapon system from default to Thunder Beam. His blue color faded to olive and yellow, and his Mega Buster's inner circuitry shifted around quietly. He pointed at the buzzblob. "Hope this works." He fired and three arcs of electricity soared into the sky, into the ground, and forward.

The beam hit the buzzblob, causing a yellow electric aura to glow around him with a mechanical sizzle. Its eyes shot open from surprise and shock. After the initial blast, it seemed to recover with no harm done and sternly looked at the beefy threatener. Rearing its head back he whipped forward and shot a burst of lightning at him.

The man dropped his weapons and froze in his tracks as white tendrils of power danced over his body. The green monster stopped the attack, leaving him cross-eyed and smoking, black soot covering his face as he swayed back and forth.

"Errr... check, please," he said as he tumbled backwards, fainted.

Link defended himself as best he could. They were starting to become too much for him. Each knick and pot-shot in his side was starting to make him succumb to weariness even more. He felt his back touch the craggy cliff wall and swung his sword in a desperate measure to make them back off.

"Hey, Link!" Mega Man called out as he made a 'come here' motion with his hand. "Draw them over here."

Link couldn't see what he was planning over their heads, and didn't know how he expected to wade through this crowd. Gripping onto determination and his boomerang he slung it out blindly, pushed off the wall, and used his shield to block for him as he barreled through the mob like a bullet, screaming at the top of his lungs.

The mafia gave way and Link found Mega Man standing on a ledge with the buzzblob in front of him. "Get behind me," the robot shouted.

Link, using his forward momentum, jumped up and flipped over the buzzblob and Mega Man, landing on the ledge behind them. The thieves and thugs tore after them.

Mega Man held up his arm cannon and aimed it at the buzzblob. "You'll get a charge out of this," he said as he fired.

The buzzblob cheerfully absorbed the electricity, gathering it with his own and fiercely fired it out at the crowd just as they approached. The light around them flashed like a light bulb and they all collapsed on top of each other, wisps of smoke billowing up. They were all out cold or groaning from immobility.

"Now that's playing with power," the blue bomber said.

"Shocking," Link responded.

* * *

"Roll, I need your assistance," Dr. Light said. Roll noticed Dr. Light struggling with a piece of scaffolding. She quickly rushed over and picked it up for him. Dr. Light gave his best effort to help, even though it was barely needed.

"You should be resting, Dr. Light," she chided. "The police department will be here shortly. They can conduct a full search then."

"I couldn't possibly rest, until I find out what Dr. Wily was searching for." He looked where the boulder was. Nothing but pebbles. He sighed.

"There's got to be an easier way about this. Perhaps there is a pattern."

"All right," Roll set herself to thinking. "So far the rooms where we've not seen damage have been industrial - the labs, the laundromat, the bathrooms."

"Ah, but not the master bathroom. We know that was searched."

"But not destroyed."

"Hmm..." Dr. Light thought. "Then they've all been rooms where humans go. Wily didn't want any of my technology I was building." He stepped over a broken girder as he mulled through the path of destruction. "Most curious. Although I suppose we can rest easy, knowing none of my technical secrets have fallen into his hands." He stopped in his tracks. "Wait, that doesn't make sense. What could I possibly own of greater value than my technical secrets?"

"Even if what he wanted wasn't technology, why wouldn't he even make an effort to try and get some?"

"Ah, never underestimate the unstable mind. Trying to track its logic is like trying to track the flight path of a house fly." Dr. Wily was an interesting paradox indeed - a man of mechanics and logic, yet crazy as a loon. How he made his genius creations was beyond anything he could understand.

"But you have many human items in storage. Surely he would have gone down there, if he was searching for it," Roll continued. "But he didn't. Which means-"

"Which means he may have found it before he got that far. It must have been up here somewhere. Perhaps on display. Perhaps-" He gripped onto a side of wall that gave way in his hands. A low rumbling sounded for a split second and suddenly the ceiling above rained down debris.

"Dr. Light!" Roll started to run for him, but was cut off by a huge chunk of scaffold. Dust spurted up, obscuring her view.

"Dr. Light!"

 **Next Chapter: Medical Emergency**


	12. Medical Emergency

Roll sprinted through the house at breakneck speeds, twisting in and out of broken corridors, trying to get through to the outside to find where the police were. Dr. Light was trapped under the ceiling fall, still conscious, but bleeding. Where were those police? They should have been here by now.

She skidded to a stop before the security server room, which was upstairs. "Damn," she muttered. The stairs were out and she would have to walk all the way around to find an alternative route. There was no time for that. She pulled out her laser gun, the green visor automatically slid in place, and fired two shots at the ceiling. The floor collapsed in front of her. Jumping up on the rubble she hoisted herself up to the second floor, right in front of the security room. The grid of closed-circuit cameras and a large blinking computer in the wall were overseeing the grounds. According to the monitors, about eight police cars and two fire trucks were wailing outside the gate. Their occupants were just standing there, talking to themselves.

Roll picked up the speakerphone and clicked 'gate'. "Hey, get in here! We need medical attention!"

On the monitor, a cop jogged over to the gate and pushed the intercom button. "We'd like to but the security protocol is still up."

 _Damn_ , Roll thought, _it was_. Searching through the control panel she looked for the disabling mechanism. The outside grounds' security must have been activated when Wily burst in. It was meant for small intruders, not large hulking robots. The laser and motion sensors would instantly disable any police that tried to walk on.

She looked up at the computer. All the buttons and switches and not one label. Dr. Light never told her how to work the security program, it was all automated. "Computer, are you voice-activated?"

No response. Apparently not. She started flipping switches, turning some up and some down. The monitors flickered out. She flipped that switch back on. A warning on the outside camera flashed "Security disabled - perimeter."

Roll came back to the microphone. "It's off. Get in here."

The police sent one lone cop towards the house, apparently as a scout. He huffled in and entered the torn away wall that used to be the entrance foyer. He waved to his partners and the collection of EMT's ran in. Roll dropped the microphone and headed over to the foyer. Jumping down into the hole she had created, she sped down the hallway towards the front of the house and nearly ran into a firefighter.

"You. What happened here?" she said.

"Not important. Need assistance for Dr. Light. Follow me."

The firefighter called back to the others. "Charlie, get the parameds in here!" She followed after Roll.

Roll hurdled debris easily. The humans and helper robots climbed over it, not having her agility, but they still managed to keep up. They found Roll standing over a pile of rocks and wood like a loyal retriever.

"Aw, jeez," the firefighter said. "Get the shovelers out here now." The ones who had made it to the scene started pulling off wreckage as fast as they could. "Get this stuff off him." Roll helped as much as she could, but she still didn't have as much strength as she ought to for a battle robot. An EMT came in holding two small robots with shovels attached to their face. He set them down on each side of the pile and they began digging up rocks at the foundation, making it easier for those who were pulling off the top. Roll pulled off a piece of tile and found the right breast pocket of his lab coat.

"I see him!"

"Put your backs into it." The paramedics and firefighters started pulling faster, knowing the finish line was there. "Get that stretcher ready."

They pulled off the last of the ruins and brushed off the dust. "Dr. Light, can you hear me?" Roll said.

A paramedic came in with an electronic med-box. "Clear out." He ran a pull-out scanner over Dr. Light while looking at the readings on the box. "Slight internal bleeding. Broken femur and tibia. Ribs... Heart looks good." He looked up to the other medics. "He's stable but hurting. We can move him."

"Let's get him out of here."

The medics pulled lifted him up and put him on the hoverbed next to the ground as gingerly and quickly as possible.

"Uhhh..." Dr. Light moaned.

"Doctor, can you hear me?" Roll said, gleeful that he had the ability to still speak.

"Roll... I'm okay. Sort of," he groaned raspily as they pushed him out of the house.

"It's okay, Dr. Light. I'm right here. I'm going with you."

"No, don't. Roll... you need to stay here and search."

"But-"

"That object was here. You must find it. If it was more valuable than my technical secrets or his revenge... who knows what danger we may be in."

Roll followed him until they reached the ambulance. They lifted him into the vehicle while Roll waited at the entrance, bound by her programming to follow his orders.

"But... all right, doctor. I'll find it."

"Find it. And find your brother. Don't worry about me."

"I will."

The EMT's closed the doors, the sirens started their wailing and the ambulance sped out. If Roll were human she would have been crying.

* * *

Mega Man and Link crawled over the grassy knoll and saw the castle in the mist.

"There it is. Hyrule Castle. The center of Hyrule."

Mega Man had never seen a real castle before - one with medieval architecture, made of mortar and stone. It seemed authentic, as if real and a picture at the same time. A reinforced off-white wall surrounded the castle itself, with guards posted at central locations. He could see a beautiful courtyard from this distance, filled with trees and other greenery. In the center was a path leading from the entrance down to wooden gate and melding seamlessly across the river to form a bridge. It seemed very inviting and friendly, not like the castles he'd read about, with cold stone walls with guards, cannons, and drawbridges, designed to keep any and all intruders as far away as possible.

"It looks beautiful," Mega Man said.

"It is." Link had found a new pride in the royal castle, since he had been to the Dark World and found its equivalent to be a soulless golden pyramid where the Triforce was housed. "We'll rest here a bit." Link took a seat under the shade of a thick oak tree and took a deep breath. Resting was definitely a perk on a quest and he intended to use it whenever possible. There wasn't any need to be in the castle right now.

"So, we've got the finest mages and seers in the castle. They'll probably be able to get you home," he said as he plucked up some grass and threw it around idly.

"I hope so, but I have my doubts. How I got here seems to be beyond human comprehension. It may have been a fluke in mathematics that can never be repeated." Mega Man doubted that the underdeveloped people here would ever be able to get him home. He was brought here by science. What hope did a people who still believed in magic have of being able to recreate the same instance when even humans from his world wouldn't understand it. If they knew he was here. By now, Light's mansion was likely destroyed and everyone was dead. Without him around to save them, Wily would likely have taken over the world by now. That was only if time was still going in his world the same as it was in this. For all he knew, time was going backwards since he left.

"Well," Link responded. "What will you do if you can't get back?"

"Unknown. It appears your justice system could need some revising."

Link laughed. "Yeah, you'd be good at that. A nigh invulnerable captain of the guards. Horace would be happy to have you replace him." Link picked up some more grass blades and started chewing them. "So what's it like there?"

"There are many tall buildings, commercial centers. Other robots keep the streets clean, buildings repaired, transportation running smoothly. It is essentially a utopia. Humans are happy. I would think, though, that you would find it too busy, fast, and crowded for your liking."

"Perhaps," Link said as he tried to picture it. He imagined tall castles with spires next to each other. "I wonder how many other worlds there are out there. Like, what's beyond Hyrule. The mountains border us to the north, plateaus to the south and east and dense forest in the west. We're pretty secluded in here."

Mega Man nodded. "World travel is common where I come from. People can jump from one side of the world to another in an instant."

"Wow, I've lived in Hyrule all my life. I can't imagine what else could... be..." Link became distracted by something down the hill on the other side. Mega Man looked down and saw the buzzblob waddling up the hill with wide coal-black eyes.

"Aw, come on. Go away already!" Link said as he stood up angrily. "Shoo! I thought we lost you at the river."

The buzzblob just kept on coming up, as if he didn't understand them. It had been following them since the ravine, despite numerous attempts to try and lose it.

"Well, he did help us with the Card Club."

"Oh, he's just attracted to you. Cause you got that lightning gun."

"Don't hurt him. He's just lost."

Link rolled his eyes at Mega Man's compassion for a monster. Even if it was sort of cute. "Okay, you. Go... that way. Over there. Go. Now. Shoo."

"Come here, little guy. Come here," Mega Man said as he slowly advanced down the hill to it.

"You're not helping."

The buzzblob cheerfully wobbled up to Mega Man. He held out his hand like he would for a dog to sniff it. The buzzblob cautiously looked at the hand and nuzzled it with the top of his head. Mega Man was surprised when he didn't feel a sharp painful jolt. "Hey, it's all right. It looks like the shock is just a natural defense mechanism."

"Great," Link said from the top of the hill. "You wanna take him home with you?"

"Well, it would be a shame to lose such a good helper." He picked up the buzzblob like a baby and carried him over to Link.

"Oh, you are not carrying it like that."

"Isn't he cute?" Mega Man held the green blobby thing up to Link like a child.

Link rolled his eyes. "Fine. But how are we gonna get him inside the castle. The guards will snipe him with an arrow once they see him. And they have good eyesight."

"Hmm," Mega Man pondered as he put it down. Mega Man couldn't let this monster be taken out when it had done so much good for them. "I have an idea. Do you have any extra clothes?"

* * *

The tower guard swept over the breadth of the castle with his telescope, watching the backs of other guards posted around the outside walls, milling about. It was a slow day, but then every day was a slow day. Bright blue painted the skies, songs of idle birds in the forest, same as any other day. The most fun was when a crow would suicidally decide to breach the castle walls. Then the lucky one would get to shoot it down with his crossbow and they would all talk about it for weeks, building it up until the crow had posed the most dangerous threat to Hylian walls since Agahnim.

The guard took the telescope from his eye and perused the grounds with his naked eyes. Just as little happened up close as far away. Oak trees and hills obscured the grounds in front of the castle beyond the river. He sighed and looked up at the sky, watching a cloud pass by. Peaceful, natural, and the same thing he'd seen for the past eight years. As he cracked his stiff neck he suddenly saw a speck approaching the castle, just emerged from the trees. He fumbled with his scope for a bit, off-put from the excitement and looked down below.

It appeared to be Link coming towards the castle, recognized by his green tunic, along with a... young-looking palace soldier dressed in blue full-body armor? With a helmet? And between them was... a very small person wearing Link's shirt and hat? They were holding hands with him, but it looked like his arms weren't big enough to reach the ends of the floppy sleeves.

"Ahoy! Who goes there?" the guard called out once they trio had reached shouting distance.

"It's me, Link!"

"And what company do you keep?"

"He means who are you with," Link said to Mega Man, rolling his eyes at the guard's penchant for taking his job too seriously. He shouted back up as he stopped at the wooden gate. "This is Mega Man, he is from another island very far away and we need help to get him back home."

"And who's that betwixt you?"

"This? Ah... this is my... friend! Buzzy!"

"Buzzy?"

"Yes, Buzzy."

The guard tried hard to look at Buzzy's face, but the hat was covering him up completely. How was he able to see? "Are you sure? He seems awfully small."

"Uhhhh..." Link stalled again. "He's been sick."

"Oh... All right then," the guard said. He was still a little suspicious, but Link could be trusted. "Raise the gate," he called down to the guards in the courtyard. They began turning the crank, making a clickety-clack sound as the wooden door was raised. The three started walking under the archway.

"'Buzzy'?" Mega Man asked as they walked in.

"I didn't see you coming up with anything," Link said in jest.

 **Next Chapter: Meeting New People**


	13. Meeting New People

"Hullo?" Link called out at the palace foyer. "Anyone home?"

Mega Man looked around with wide-eyed curiosity. The walls were painted in a rich pale gold. The introductory walkway was carpeted with a lush velvet tapestry, lined with ornate gold lame markings. The floor itself was a sapphire-blue painted stone that looked as smooth as ice. Several statues stood at attention as they paced down the carpet, depicting brave knights, perhaps those who died in service. The walkway led them into a grand hall, decorated with even more statues and peculiar gray cauldrons situated before the entrance stairs. The humanness of it was astonishing.

"Come on, let's go up," Link said.

"This is amazing," Mega Man said as he spun around, trying to take it all in. The crystal chandelier at the ceiling caught his eye and he cranked his neck to study it. "It's so vast and uncluttered. There's so much aestheticism."

"Thanks... I think." Link worried if Mega Man was going to run into something while looking at the ceiling.

They pounded up the stairs and into the middle of a second floor corridor, decorated with the same walls and floor covering.

"Link!" a voice came from down the hall.

A woman with pretty blond hair and a blue and white dress came running down at them, her skirt picked up to avoid tripping. She collided with Link in a great big hug.

"Oh, it's so good to see you."

Link returned the hug. "Same with you, Princess."

She pulled back, with her hands still on Link's shoulders. "You're safe and sound. How goes the quest."

"I found them."

Zelda raised her eyebrow. "You found them already?" she said in a less delicate voice.

Link reached in the knapsack and pulled out the three pendants. "All here, safe and sound." He handed them to her.

"Wow, that was fast."

"I know. Surprised me too."

"They're not fakes, are they?"

"No, I doubt it. I'll tell you about it later."

Zelda put the medallions in a pouch in her dress. "I'll have to keep these safe before we can have the vault overhauled."

"You haven't found the culprit yet?"

Zelda hung her head. "No, not quite. We have some suspicions though. We know it was an inside job."

"I was just about to say that. It's someone inside the castle. Someone who had access to the vault and someone who has connections with the thieves guild. Other than that I don't know who it could be."

"I might now, but I'll tell you later."

"Well, we don't need to worry now." Link turned to his side. "This is..." Link looked and saw Mega Man inspecting a potted plant. "This is Mega Man."

"What?" Mega Man suddenly jumped up upon hearing his name. "Oh, sorry." He came over and took Princess Zelda's hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you," he said as he shook.

Zelda liked this gesture. She was used to having her hand kissed and bowed down before. This was being treated as a normal person.

"Likewise," she said as she felt the coldness of his skin through her glove. "Are you..."

"This is the man of metal with the arm of light, apparently," Link added.

"Ah, I see. You must have been a great help to Link."

"I tried my best, though your customs and ways have me confused sometimes."

Link added. "He's from another world, as well. Somewhere way beyond Hylian territory."

"Oh, I see, well, you certainly know your manners for being from another world."

"I'm used to dealing with foreign dignitaries wishing to congratulate me on my achievements. Even though such praise is not necessary."

"And who is this?" Zelda let go of Mega Man's hand to look at the short fellow wearing a tunic and hat like Link's. "Who's this little guy?"

"Ah, Princess..." Link started to warn.

Zelda took the hat off and found a wiggly green face looking up at her.

"EEEK!" she shrieked as she stumbled back about ten feet. "What is that?"

"He's... Buzzy," Link sighed. "Don't worry. He only attacks when threatened."

"He attacks? He can't be here in the palace!"

"It's all right," Mega Man said. "I'll vouch for his character."

 _Character?_ Link thought.

"Well, if you say so... I was wondering where your hat went, Link," Zelda said as she replaced it atop his head.

"I knew it, I knew it!" someone coming from around the corner said. The Seer scuffled out down the hallway as fast as his little legs could carry him. "Aha, yes, yes, here he is. Yes, the man of metal. Oh, yes. Most exciting." The wizened little man came toe-to-toe with Mega Man, looking him right in the eye. Mega Man leaned back in surprise. The Seer ran his hand up and down Mega Man's arm. "Yesss, yesss."

"Hey, hey, I don't think that's appropriate," Mega Man said.

"How did you know he was here?" Zelda said.

"I'm a Seer. Of course I knew he was here. Yes, you are from another world, aren't you," he said as he tapped Mega Man's head. "I have many questions to ask you."

"And I have many to ask you. It's essential that I get back to my world as soon as possible."

"Ahh, perhaps we can help each other then. Yes, yes, always a good thing when both sides win." The Seer put a hand on Mega Man's back and started leading him down the hall.

"Hold it a second," Link said. The two stopped in their tracks. Link pulled out the cloth from his knapsack. "I need you to tell me whether this is authentic or not. I don't think it is, but just in case. It's not a priority though. Just get him home," he said as he looked up at Mega Man. He smiled warmly.

The Seer adjusted his spectacles and looked at the fabric Link was holding out. For once in his life he was speechless. The others could practically see question marks coming out of his head.

"What th'?" He promptly took it. "This will require investigation. Much intriguement. Thank you, Link. I'll do as you say. Yes, yes. Come, come, there is much to discuss. The discussion... there will be... much... of..."

Zelda turned back to Link. "Listen, Link, I think that-" she stopped, looking around the hall for any occupants that might overhear her. "I think the culprit might be Advisor Noktwor."

"Nok-" he stopped himself before he said it aloud. "Really?"

"I haven't been able to gather the evidence yet, but he's my number one suspect. What's more, he told me I should stop investigating if I knew what was good for me."

"He did what?" Link said in a low voice and instinctively grabbed the hilt of his sword.

"He said I was delving into things better left undelved."

Link gritted his teeth angrily. Nothing irked him more than someone who betrayed his trust. And even more irksome were those who put threats on others' life. The unmitigated gall of Noktwor was through the roof.

"We can't let it worry us, though," Zelda said kindly. "The pendants are back. That's the important thing. Dinner will be served shortly," Zelda grabbed Link by the hand. "Come on, I want you to tell me all about your adventures."

Link relaxed a bit as he let Zelda's hand lead her around the palace.

* * *

Link dug into his steak of tartare like there was no tomorrow. He had been living on dry bread and apples for much of his quest, and though it was a nice change from palace food, there was no comparison. The meat was juicy and tender and the garlic mashed potatoes next to it were to die for. Zelda watched with amusement, as this was Link's ritual whenever he came back from an outing.

The table was made of a deep cherry hardwood and had a beautiful flamboyant candelabra as its centerpiece. The back wall had a tapestry overhang with the royal insignia etched on it, behind where the king sat. Two doors were carved out in this wall as well, one for each side. Mega Man rested idly at his place opposite Link, with a steaming slab of meat in front of him, watching the other patrons and members of the royal family. Zelda sat with her father, the king, who wore his place in the world well. He was quite fat and his green robe did little to hide it. His great white beard emphasized his size. He seemed quite kind though.

"Why, Mr. Man, is there something wrong with your steak?" he asked as he sipped from a goblet of wine.

Mega Man responded, "I'm sure there isn't. I simply don't eat."

"Why, Romani steak is one of the finest meals Hyrule has to offer. Please you must at least try the mashed potatoes. They've been picked from the royal garden just today."

"I appreciate the offer, but I can't eat this. I wasn't designed to eat."

"I see." The king clapped his hands loudly twice, summoning a servant. "Have the kitchen prepare this boy a plate of steamed vegetables. Apparently, he has a sensitive stomach and can't eat hearty food."

The servant bowed and left straight away.

Mega Man started, "Uh, actually, I meant-"

"So Mr. Man, do all the people from your island have such interesting dietary habits?"

"Uh, well, not all-"

"It must be quite warlike over there, if you need to wear such tough armor all the time. The monsters must be terrifying."

"Well, we don't have-"

"I say, I should like to open up talks with the people from your land. If we can find a solid trade route I believe it would be a windfall to both our countries. When you get back can you ask your emissaries to send some representatives over here?"

"Uh, I don't think that'll be possible. I'm not sure how I got here myself."

The king laughed uproariously. "You don't know how you got here? How humorous. Tell me, what would you say your biggest economic boon is?"

"Robotics."

"Robotics? What are those? A sort of farming method?"

"Well, robots are used for farming, but they're used for much more than that. They're also used for garbage collecting, construction, defense, teaching, law-keeping, medical needs, accounting, emergency relief-"

"That's all nice. How many rupees would a robotic cost perhaps?"

"Rupees? I don't know what the conversion rate is."

"You don't use rupees as currency? What on earth could be as valuable as rupees?"

"Ah, father," Zelda interrupted, "Maybe all the details of Mega Man's origins are better left for... for when their emissaries get here." She wanted to avoid as many weird questions as possible, in fear that it might expose Mega Man to danger.

"Nonsense, daughter. Now would you say your government would prefer a bilateral reciprocal agreement or a regional trade assignment with tariff barriers. I'm personally open to both."

"Uh, even if trade were possible, I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question."

"Father, please, he's had a very rough trip, he's new here, he's not ready to discuss trade agreements. Besides, we're still rebuilding the economy since Agahnim."

The Seer chose that moment to come into the room and interrupt. He looked alert and excited as he approached the blue bomber. "Mega Man, I've found something interesting that you must see right away."

"Concerning my transport?"

"In a sense."

"Excuse me, please. I enjoyed talking to you." Mega Man said as he shoved back from the table and followed the Seer out. Silently he was thanking the Seer for getting him out of there.

"Well, they know their manners where he comes from," the king said.

"Yes, that's what I said," Zelda agreed.

Link popped the last of his steak in his mouth. "Zelda, what about the moblins?"

"The moblins?"

"Have they stopped attacking the village?"

"Reports have been scant lately. I think they might have eased off somewhat. I've only gotten one formal report of a moblin sighting in the forest. That person ran away before he could get attacked."

"Interesting. I wonder if the two were related - the pendants and the moblin attacks."

"Why would they be? They're just monsters."

Link rubbed his temple thoughtfully. "They're not monsters. At least that's not how they behaved. They had spears, they had armor, they were organized when they attacked. I wonder if they have something behind them. Some leader."

"What would that have to do with the pendants?"

"I don't know. I'm just thinking out loud." Link hoisted himself up from the table. "I think I'll retire for the rest of the night. Thank your cooks for dinner for me."

The king and Zelda nodded in acknowledgment as Link exited the room through the door on the right. The dinner room hung in silence for a while. Zelda picked at her food with her fork. The king looked up at the ceiling, pretending to study the ceiling painting.

"So..." he finally broke the silence as he looked opposite from himself. "What's your story?"

The buzzblob at the end of the table perked up its head and blinked.

 **Next Chapter: Talk to Everyone**


	14. Talk to Everyone

Roll cantered back into the house after making her report to the police. Digger robots were milling about at her feet trying to clean up the rubble and debris. No humans were in the house anymore. They had taken all the pictures of the damage and reported on all the city-made repairs that would be needed, such as water leakage and construct stability. Since no humans were living in the house though, Roll could stay there indefinitely. Later when Dr. Light was well, they could discuss rebuilding the house, but until that time, she had two priorities to take care of - find Rock and find whatever it was Dr. Wily was looking for. Rock was the priority right now, since she was still trying to figure out how to find something that wouldn't be there. She feared it would be a lost cause, but since the diggers and mettools were cleaning up the place, she had no other duties to perform. She had express orders from Dr. Light to get the job done.

As she traveled back up to the security room the first thing she tried was using her internal communicator again. This was the same comm device they could use to call out to any normal telephone, except it could connect to Mega Man directly since they both had the same protocol. Like all the other times, though, it garnered no response. His comm device was down or he was out of range or in a place that interfered with a signal. She now feared getting 'could not connect' messages every time.

She made it back into the security room and toggled the monitors. Switching frequently from channel to channel she scoured the breadth of the mansion looking for any sign of him. Any sign of life at all, in fact. Half the channels were just showing static, though, making a search nearly obsolete. As she flipped back and forth through camera angles, she couldn't help but wonder where he had gone to. Maybe Mega Man was the thing Dr. Wily was looking for. A valid theory, but nearly impossible. Mega Man would never allow himself to be taken captive. Besides, Wily's objective would be to destroy Mega Man, not capture him or enslave him. He had already proven resistant to reprogramming, so that wouldn't work. He couldn't be coerced into doing something or that would conflict with the Robotic Laws and render him useless. So Dr. Wily wasn't looking for Mega Man when he came in here.

With none of her questions answered by the cameras, she exited the security room and headed downstairs. He wasn't in the house. He may have been under it. Not under a collapsed part, he could easily break free of that.

Roll's mind suddenly jumped back to seeing Dr. Light under the ceiling as it rained down on him, watching his terrified face as he put his hands up to stop the crushing blows.

No, she couldn't think about that right now. She had to perform these duties. If for nothing else than to distract her from the worry and thought that was recurring in her mind.

She mulled over other possibilities. Mega Man could have teleported out certainly, but if he did, he would have made contact with them by now. He wouldn't be unavailable for contact. Not to mention it was unlike him to run away from danger, especially when those closest to him were in trouble. He could have teleported out and then come into more danger, but that was a long shot.

The house system has several lockdown measures. It was possible that Mega Man could be trapped in a room, particularly the rooms in the basement. Mega Man could have gone down there and either gotten trapped or hid himself away. Hiding was unlike Mega Man also.

Roll started her way down the laboratory. It was nearly a separate mansion in itself, designed this way to ensure that containment was maximized if one of Dr. Light's experiments got out of control. The walls were reinforced litanium and the doors all had lockdown measures to go off in emergency or on command. It was possible a command router suffered damage and Mega Man would be trapped down there.

She took the smaller loading ramp down, meant for front door deliveries. It was a long hallway slanted down to go into the lab. It ended at a closed door blinking green and yellow. That indicated some sort of warning or error, unfortunately she couldn't tell which.

Roll unlocked the command entry panel in the lower right of the door with an alphanumeric keypad. The red LED screen was flashing a message - 'DO YOU WISH TO UNLK L7DOOR? Y/N'.

Roll pressed nine on the keypad, the same as 'Y'. The display screen asked 'PLEASE ENTER PASSCODE'.

Roll knew all the basic passcodes for the security doors, so she entered one. The red letter color changed to a more pleasant orange with the message "PASSCODE ACCEPTED". The lights on the door returned to stable green. Roll shut the panel and pulled up the release crank on the door itself. The titanium slab split in two and slid back into the wall, revealing the real door. The motion sensors reawakened with the presence of Roll in front of them and opened.

Roll entered the one of the lab rooms. A large bookshelf filled up the space of one wall and two tables stood in the middle. Several welding and drilling machines and smaller tools were scattered through the rest of the space.

"Rock?" she called out. "Are you here." She traipsed through this room and into another with a similar set up. No Rock there either. Four other labs later there was nothing. Through her rapid succession she barely noticed that in this particular one, half the room was in a decrepit state. The tables were broken, the papers were thrown apart, cabinet doors were open or ripped off the hinges. Going into the next room, she noticed the pattern increasing and the damage with it.

"Uh-oh," she muttered to herself. This was one of Dr. Light's bigger laboratories, connecting to the alternate loading ramp. The door was locked down and flashing red, and she noticed a piece of black-colored metal in the vague shape of an arm lay near it. Roll immediately walked over and picked it up. It was clearly not Mega Man's, giving her a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least he got one of them," she said as she tossed it back on the floor. She looked to the left and saw a chaotic pile of metal tubes and circuitry. Before the incident, Dr. Light was working on his large-scale transporter here. Unfortunately, it was now demolished. The tattered ruins of the metal circle lay in a heap on the floor like a pile of straws. The control box was flung to the other side of the room. All the other tools and implements were strewn about and more closets and file cabinets were torn away.

Roll stepped closer to the destroyed teleporter, disappointed that Dr. Light's most recent work now had to be started all over again. She hoped Rock hadn't tried to use it.

* * *

Mega Man looked idly at the books in the Seer's bookcase. Many forgotten tomes of literature filled the shelves with information about the land, some ridiculous, some not - "Divining for Fun and Profit", "Lands of Hyrule", "Prophecies", "Charcraft's Timeline Theory". If he was a data-retaining robot, he would be speeding through these books, but it would take Mega Man too much time to absorb all this information. The science of Hyrule was weaved into a complex web of magic and sorcery, so much so Mega Man could never hope to separate the fact from the half-fact.

He pulled a book down from the shelf - "Races of Hyrule" - and began reading about a race called Zoras. "Zoras have a history of severe evolutionary changes. Earliest reports indicate that Zoras were once a civilized species living under the freshwater of Hyrule. The positioning of found bones indicate they could walk upright and had hands and arms like other humans. The head was their most distinguishing feature. Male heads tapered back to a long tail-like growth complete with fluke. Female heads fanned out from the back of the cranium. Their skin was smooth and they needed water to survive. At some point, a great disaster occurred in the Zora world which caused them to either die out or undergo major physical change. Some speculate that using magic and the natural process of evolution over time they took to the air, becoming a race of 'bird-men'. However, there is no evidence that these bird-men existed. Others believe that Zoras changed into the unintelligent species that menace our waterways today. Some think that this is untrue and the naming is a conventional mistake.

"Zoras today sport green scaly skin and fin-like outgrowths at the head. Their mouths are filled with fangs and they have the ability to spit fire. Only strong shields have the ability to deflect this attack so they should be eliminated with long-range weapons. Reports are sketchy, given their tendency to dart in and out of water at fast speeds, but some indicate their ability to walk on land.

"Despite their animosity with the civilized races of Hyrule, the Zoras seem to retain some sort of cohesive society. Their aggressive nature may be a defense mechanism against intruders into their domain. The existence of the Zora King supports this theory, who has the ability to speak and collect currency. Little else is known about this figurehead, though."

The book then went on to talk about waterways, the best attack and defense strategies, more details about their possibility of civilization, etc. Mega Man didn't much like the gaps in the facts and logic behind the information in these encyclopedic tomes. Despite all the knowledge that has been collected and written down, none of it was very firm. Holes were everywhere. It was as if those who wanted to make an information volume relied on secondary reports instead of going out and collecting empirical data. Maybe those who were scientific in nature were ill-equipped to defend against the apparent dangers in the world.

"Are you finished yet?" Mega Man asked the Seer who was behind the curtain.

"Almost, almost. Got to get the powder mixed. The powder must be mixed a lot, sir."

Mega Man rolled his eyes. He had been waiting in the Seer's room for nearly three hours since he had pulled him out of dinner with the 'important news'. Apparently the important news was that he had to wait while the Seer conducted his experiment. In the meantime, the Seer had taken to asking him annoying questions about his world and his past.

"Now tell me," the Seer said as he was doing his own thing. "Your armor, what it is made from."

"It's a special titanium alloy, built to resist plasma energy blasts."

"Ah, I see, interesting. It seems so hard and tough. Could you show our blacksmiths how to make it?"

"Probably not, unless you have an electro-chemical plant."

"No, but maybe you have some seeds?"

"Seeds?" Mega Man then realized what he meant. "Never mind, I don't think you could make it. It's found mostly in the planet's crust, if that helps."

"It does not!" he said eccentrically.

Mega Man was disappointed, all these people seemed to care about was his battle capabilities. Granted that's what his purpose was, but he had so much more. He had joints that were used in medical replacement surgery, he had computer data storage technology, he had decades of knowledge ahead of him that would help them excel in the most simple things like agriculture, irrigation, and transportation, but no one was asking him those questions.

"All right, come back here," he finally said. Mega Man pulled back the curtain and found the robed man sitting at the table with a bowl of powder sitting on a large map. He held up a long needle. "I need a drop of your blood."

"I have no blood."

"What?"

"I don't have blood. I'm a robot."

"You have no blood? Well, how is this supposed to work?"

"What is it?"

"It's supposed to be a locator. A locator that would display on this map where your home is. That it would."

Mega Man looked over a map on the Seer's table. It was the largest scale map he probably had with the whole of the land on it.

"I don't think you understand. Even if I had blood, this map wouldn't show you where I'm from. I know I don't live in this... this place. The entire area."

"You mean you don't live in Hyrule?"

"I mean, I don't think I live anywhere on this planet. Maybe not even this time."

"Oh my, my, my, my, my, my, my." The Seer stood up from the table and shuffled around worriedly, pacing back and forth behind his table, his finger to his lips deep in thought. Mega Man thought he looked something like a Druidic wind-up toy.

"Oh dear, this is harder than I thought. Not qualified for this. Oh my. Definitely, definitely not qualified." He worked his way around the table and past Mega Man to the bookshelf. He traced his finger smoothly along the rows of books, going down each row in a column until he came down to the lower shelf with the dusty lesser-used books.

"It could, it couldn't, it could, it couldn't. Here." He took one of the leather bound books out and opened it. "Sometimes, sometimes, they come out. This book. This book talks about this world. This world and the worlds that might be beyond it. Past Hyrule, past the sun, past everything."

"Past everything? I'm sorry, but I just don't think you have the evidence yet to understand it."

"A theory do you have then?"

"Maybe. In my time we have some scientists who believe that there are parallel dimensions. Other universes like this one. Ones that exist in a different time and space, but are almost identical in nature."

"Ooh, ooh, my head hurts. What is this gobbledy-gook you spatter?"

"I mean that maybe, somehow, the gate that brought me here somehow sent me to this place. This is a parallel dimension to mine, and mine is a parallel dimension to yours."

"Preposterous thinking. I like it. The infinite possibilities of worlds beyond this. Whole worlds. It's too much for this little Seer to think about."

"What are you saying? That you can't get me home?"

"How? How would I do so? The magic hasn't been invented yet that can transport us from even one room to another. How would I transport you across worlds?"

Mega Man looked down dejectedly, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. "There must be some kind of transportational magic that you have. Maybe it can be amplified?" Mega Man couldn't believe what he was saying - relying on magic, an unproven science, to get him home.

"I don't know. Don't know do I. More research must be done. Research on a completely unknown subject, yes. I will consult my fellow fortune-tellers. Perhaps something, perhaps something. But until then..." he shut the book with a sharp snap, a cloud of dust flew up. "You may as well make yourself comfy."

Mega Man tapped his fingers against his leg, caught in a recursive loop of trepidation.

* * *

Link's sleep came slowly. The steak he had eaten felt like a rock in his stomach, like his body had barely made an effort getting it digested. Though his belly felt stiff, his tired muscles and his relaxed mind made the rest of the effort of carrying him off to dreamland.

His four-post bed was unbecoming of a traveling hero, but it was deserving of the one who had saved Hyrule. His triple layered sheets kept him warm in the drafty castle. Thin white satin curtains hung draped over the high posts. He rested his head on three down pillows. The top sheet was a royal purple, emblazoned with the royal Triforce symbol and ornamented with runes and curly lines. Link slept soundly on this pleasant bed, dressed in his light blue flannel pajamas.

In his state, he flipped over, placing his hands under the pillow for comfort. He was oblivious in this condition. His alertness was non-existent. For someone who often slept outside in the midst of danger, this bed dragged him down deeper into a trance-like sleep. For this reason, he did not see the black shape open the window of his room.

A light breeze entered with the assassin, fluttering the curtains next to the portal. The shape stepped into the room, not making a sound, soft padded feet hitting the carpet as light as a feather. Moonlight reflected off his gleaming eyes, making them seem soulless. Pulling out a knife from his belt, he held it blade down as he crept closer to Link's bed.

The shadow of the killer flowed up Link's content face like a shroud. The stiletto blade of the knife dangled in front of Link's shut eyes. He gripped tighter on the hilt.

Suddenly he felt a shifting of the rug below him. Surprised, he looked down and found a long tube like projection coming out from under the bed. It touched his legs and sent forth a sharp blast of electricity.

"Ercck!" the killer let out accidentally, nearly dropping the knife.

Link's eyes shot open, wide and alert, as if he never went to sleep at all. He tore off the covers just in time to see the black shape stumbling back from the shock. The buzzblob shimmied out from under the bed and angrily burbled at the assassin.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Link yelled as he assumed a fighting stance, bobbing slightly on the mattress.

The black-clad killer scowled at Link and leapt out the window. Link and the buzzblob dashed to the window and looked out. No sign of him on the ground, the roof or anywhere. He apparently had disappeared. Link muttered under his breath in angered disappointment.

Zelda and a guard burst into the room as Link turned around dejectedly. "Link, we heard you yell. Did something happen?"

"Yeah, we found out that castle security is terrible."

 **Next Chapter: Finding a Clue**


	15. Finding a Clue

"I didn't get a very good look at him. He was meant for stealth though - all black, padded feet. All I could see were those eyes. They didn't seem human, they seemed to almost glow. It was weird."

"Hmm," Zelda hummed. Her, Link, Mega Man, and Horace were sitting at the meeting table, discussing last night's attempt on Link's life and its possible implications. "This matter is getting more and more severe all the time. I sincerely believe that this is related to Advisor Noktwor. Horace?"

"I cannot say one way or the other. Although, I have disciplined him for his 'threat' on your life. It appears it didn't scare him enough. Of course I can't reprimand him for this - not enough evidence."

"Whether the two are related or not is immaterial," Mega Man said. "He may have just been a mentally unstable person. Link has made some enemies in the criminal underground. Clearly, staying at the castle is no longer a safe option."

"I'm almost certain whoever stole the pendants is behind this," Link muttered. "But what's the connection?"

"Master Link! Master Link! Oh my goodness gracious." The Seer pounced into the room and skittered up to the table. "It's real. It's real!"

"What?"

"The cloth. The cloth with the fourth Triforce piece." He waved it in the air excitedly.

"What? You're kidding. Are you sure?"

"I am. See these runes? They're from a tongue spoken before the Book of Mudora, but I was able to deduct what the characters translated to. These runes mean that the fourth piece is the element of unity. When it's combined with the three others, it will grant the one who touches it the power of the three gods. They will be omnipotent. God-like, even. They could literally do anything."

"Anything?" Link took the cloth and looked at it. He studied the inked image of the four triangles, separated by only a small space, all glowing with energy. The surface circle of runic characters had no meaning to Link.

"It's crucial. Crucial to the fate of the world. You must find it, Link. Oh, must find it."

Link remained extremely skeptical. So skeptical he could have plastered a wall with all the skepticism. "The Triforce of Unity, you say?" Link said. He looked longingly at Zelda. She came up and looked at the cloth over his shoulder.

"Where did the old man say he got this from?"

"A treasure chest that washed up on shore. No other information about it. He also gave me a copper mushroom, and said it would help me on my quest," Link said. "Is there any prophecy about questing for the fourth Triforce piece?"

"Er... I'm afraid not. None that I can find."

"Well, then you better write one. I'm going."

"Link, you can't do this. Once this gets out, everyone in the world is going to be looking for it and they'll stop at nothing."

"I can't afford to wait. The next thing to wash up on shore might be that piece. Besides it's not safe to stay in the castle anyway. Next assassin might be meant for you."

Zelda grunted in frustration and threw up her hands. "We need to solve this mystery, now! Horace, get every man you can on it. I want this culprit found out. I want this conspiracy exposed."

"Already done, your majesty," Horace bowed and walked out.

"I'm not going to let anyone or anything stop me from proving who is guilty," she muttered resolutely to herself. Zelda turned back to Link. "Link, you just got back from one quest, and you were lucky enough to finish it right away. Don't go off on some wild cucco chase."

"Adventures are what I do, Zelda. It's what I was made for." He turned to Mega Man. "Will you come with me?"

"Me? You _want_ me on your adventure?"

"I could really use an extra hand," Link said. "You've proven yourself before."

"Maybe I should stay here, in case they find a way to send me back home."

"I really wouldn't worry about that. Unfortunately," the Seer added.

Mega Man looked down dejectedly. So it would take that long? What was Mega Man going to do with himself here. Until he found out, he would follow the only friend he had made here. "I would be honored," he said as he stood up. "But where are we supposed to start looking?"

"There is always some clue. Sometimes it's small, you just have to keep your eyes peeled for it." Link reached into his pocket and felt the copper mushroom bulging out.

* * *

Mega Man was nowhere to be found. No evidence that he was destroyed, no record of him having left, no trace of him. To say Roll was worried would be an understatement. Nonetheless, she was made to follow orders. Upon unsuccessful completion of finding Rock, she now had to search through the mansion for whatever object Dr. Wily had stolen. So far it was also shaping up to be unsuccessful.

Dr. Light had never given Roll image memory, only schematic memory, meaning that she didn't have exact pictures of what the mansion should have looked like, only what was supposed to be there in terms of pure data. With the state of the mansion, the hopes of finding the lost object were slim to none. Anything that was not broken was accounted for. The pictures in the drawing room, the furniture, tablecloths, vases, the fireplace poker, even the little glass unicorn on the shelf was there.

The story was the same for each room she looked in. Everything matched up with her records. Every nook and cranny, from the largest piece of equipment to the smallest chotchke was accounted for in her databanks. She looked in safes, all the money was there. The technical documents were all accessible. Broken pieces of paintings and shot up furniture littered the less cohesive parts of the house, but they too were accounted for. The foodstuffs matched up to the inventory, although she had no idea why robots would want to steal a taco.

Roll was beginning to feel like this search for a needle in a haystack was a waste of time. She had the same abilities as Mega Man now, she could fight, she could take down Dr. Wily... if she knew where he was.

She entered Dr. Light's bedroom, the last room she had thought to search. She opened all the drawers, finding clothes, mostly consisting of dress shirts and slacks, all neatly folded. The counts matched what was present compared with what was in laundering. The dresser's surface contents also stood tidy. A photograph here and there, a small box for cufflinks, some personal mail still to be looked at. That was all there. The bed itself was smooth and unfettered. Dr. Light's nightstand was undisturbed. The end table next to the dresser had its contents - pencils, paper, scissors, folders - all there. The painting above the end table, displaying a mishmash of purple and red colors was untouched. The adjacent bathroom had nothing out of place. All the cleaning utilities, the sonic shower, the bathtub. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Roll exited the bathroom, frustrated. She sat on the bed and opened the nightstand drawer with a touch of the button. A puff of air thrust the drawer open and she pulled it out the rest of the way. Again, not really expecting to see anything she tussled through the contents - a tissue box, some shoe polish. Roll pulled out an old book to see the bottom of the drawer. Old junk rattled around in the plastic insides. Roll pulled her hand out and sighed.

She noticed a white piece of paper coming out the book, trapped therein. Curious, she opened to the pages it was stuck between and found it was an old photo album. Roll didn't realize Dr. Light had one of these. They were even printed on photographic paper, not just stored in Photo Display Units like the one on top of the dresser.

Roll smirked happily as she began paging through the documents. This was a side of Dr. Light she had never seen before. There were pictures of him with his family, his friends, people she had no idea of who they were. One picture showed him standing with four university professors on a graduation stage. Another one showed him in his younger years, before he grew a beard, wearing a college mascot sweater and cooking on a hibachi barbecue.

She practically giggled to herself as she looked through page and page of old memories. Lots of them were of Dr. Light as a younger man, either working at computer stations or mechanical environments or at social gatherings. She had no idea he had so many lady friends in his youth. One was a picture of Dr. Light standing next to a metallic endoskeleton shaped like a human. He was grinning ear-to-ear, his demeanor contrasting with the mechanoid's cold faceless expression. A true testament to Dr. Light, he was delighted as ever to be working with humanless machines, making them more human.

Further into the book, Roll found pictures of Dr. Light in his years of working with Dr. Wily. Some were of them working in the lab, busily slaving over computers and wires, some were of them attending social functions and conventions. In these, Dr. Light always seemed genuinely happy, putting his arms around the shoulder of his companion. However, Dr. Wily always had a fake smile emblazoned on his leathery wrinkled face. His eyes gave him away. Early evidence of Dr. Wily's dissatisfaction of life. Roll wondered why Dr. Light kept pictures of his nemesis in his album. She would think that he would want to forget about the man who betrayed him and destroyed his creations.

Soon Roll finally found pictures of Dr. Light holding a disc called RockNRoll AI Ver 2.0, with a humongous grin on his face. This must have been the human equivalent of a sonogram picture for Dr. Light. Moving forward she found pictures of their slow transformation, from skeletal structures to circuitry and onward to having a protective outer shell to even having hair and eye color.

The next page was a full top-down body shot of Rock and Roll lying next to each other, possibly moments before their activation. Rock had a white t-shirt and blue shorts on. Herself had a pretty red dress, the one she wore every day. Roll smiled to herself when she thought about the early days, learning about the world with her brother Rock. Exploring the house, being taught by their creator how to perform the tasks they would be doing. She wondered if they would ever be able to go back to those times.

The following pictures reinforced her memories as she gazed at shots of Rock and Roll standing next to the oak tree outside, washing dishes, repairing a light fixture. It seemed that the smallest menial tasks were milestones in the mind of Dr. Light. Still paging through, she found a picture of Rock, Dr. Light, and Roll sitting in the bedroom, the exact same spot she was sitting now, in fact. Rock was giving the victory sign, while Dr. Light and Roll looked at the camera and smiled. She remembered this moment. This was when one of Dr. Light's colleagues - Dr. Cossack - came all the way from Russia to visit them and wanted a picture of the three of them for remembrance. Apparently the photo studio had made a double of the print and he sent one to Dr. Light. This was a great picture of them, Roll thought. They looked like a real family, working together, playing together, with mutual love for each other. Roll couldn't imagine a life without them. With Mega Man lost and Dr. Light in an unknown medical condition, she wondered what would become of her if they disappeared. Who would there be to serve? She wondered if she was ready for that kind of independent thinking and action.

Roll lamented how much things had changed since this picture was taken. Rock's goofy grin showed him like his former optimistic, fun-loving self, Dr. Light the doting father, and Roll the shy but loving sister and daughter. Now Rock had become Mega Man, forcing a drastic attire and personality change. He had become so much more serious in his years, the burden of keeping the world safe and justice preserved had created an almost visible burden on his shoulders. Roll had become more sarcastic and jaded. And Dr. Light had become worry-worn, constantly battling Dr. Wily from the sidelines, racing to keep his technology updated and upgraded. Maybe that's why people took still photographs, to keep memories frozen in time, preserving what was good about what had happened past. Roll tried to envision a future where Rock was still wearing his white t-shirt and blue shorts, where he still grinned from ear-to-ear at having his picture taken. Where Dr. Light had a successful robot enterprise without needing to worry about the fate of the world. Where his bedroom seemed like a sanctum. Not a place to keep memories preserved but to live those memories, memories where Dr. Light, Rock and herself sat on this blue bedspread and took pictures of the bedroom with his dresser, his end table with his vase, his colorful painting on the wall...

Wait, that vase...

That vase wasn't there before.

Roll looked behind her at the end table. No vase.

She looked again at the picture. Vase.

That was what was missing.

 **Next Chapter: Belief in Fairies**


	16. Belief in Fairies

Roll entered the kitchen in a great hurry. It was the closest room with a working phone. The one in the living room was destroyed and the mets and other small bots were busily trying to repair the damage.

She hit the 'call' button and said "Mercy Hospital". The phone emitted a faint crackling as it made the necessary connections throughout the network, only audible to her.

The image of a robot nurse with blue hair and pink eyes came on the screen. "Welcome to Mercy Hospital. Please state your request."

"Please transfer me to Dr. Thomas Xavier Light's room," Roll said.

"One moment, please," the robot cheerfully replied. Roll thought of how Dr. Light once said that, in his younger days, phone systems were automated so you would have to listen to endless menus to get anywhere. He said that one of the greatest things he did was put a stop to that by making robots so intelligent they could do anything you asked.

Dr. Light came on the screen, sitting in his hospital bed wearing a gown, looking jovial. He had his hands placed around the screen, still adjusting the comm device attached to the swing arm in the wall. "Hello, Roll. Confounded comm doesn't seem to want to stay put." He eased his hands away from the device, gently clutching it a few times to try and stick it in one spot. "Well, have you found anything," he said as he sighed and leaned back.

"I haven't been able to find Rock yet. He hasn't teleported out. He hasn't contacted either me or anyone else. I haven't found any trace of him in the mansion. It's as if he just disappeared."

"Disappeared? Oh dear. What could have happened to him. You don't think Wily took him, do you?"

"I don't think so. Mega Man would never allow that to happen, he'd sooner be destroyed than let Dr. Wily know his secrets. And there was no evidence that he was destroyed either."

"What about Rush? Tango?"

"I have not discovered them either. They may be where Mega Man is or they may be hiding below the house. I'll try and find them."

"All right good. They may know where your brother went. I know Rush was probably the last of us to see him. What about the object? Did you find that?"

"I believe so. There was a vase in your bedroom that was missing. I conducted a full intensive scan of the house and could not find any trace of it. Meaning it wasn't broken or hidden."

"A vase? In my bedroom?"

"Yes, it was sitting next to the end table on the dresser on the right side as one would enter. Below the painting."

"Curious. I can't seem to remember that vase," he said as he looked up and away.

"Are you saying it was not supposed to be there?"

"No, no. It's just that sometimes you get so used to what's normal you become desensitized to it, you forget that it's there in the first place."

"I found it in an old picture from thirteen years ago that had the vase in it. I don't know if perhaps it was given away or sold?" Roll asked, suddenly realizing that the vase may not have been what Wily was looking for.

"No, no, I remember it now. It was gray, wasn't it?"

"Yes."

"And it had a weird design spiraling around it, a sort of zig-zag."

"Correct," Roll smiled.

"Hmmm, no, I didn't sell it or get rid of it. It's always been there in my room. I can't remember where I got it from though. Thirteen years, you say?"

"Perhaps. Maybe more." For all she knew, he could have gotten it when he was three. She clearly remembered seeing and cleaning the vase in the bedroom when it was there, now that she could find it in her databanks.

"Let's see. Before that time, many people gave me gifts. Trying to get on my good side, investors and whatnot. But that's not where the vase would come from. A vase is more personal."

"Dr. Cossack was the one taking the picture. Maybe if-"

"Dr. Cossack!" Dr. Light yelped with wide eyes. Roll jerked back in surprise. "Of course, why didn't I think of that before. Dr. Cossack was with me for nearly all that time before I created you and Rock, before I partnered with Dr. Wily. He would know where I got the vase from, he has a photographic memory. I'm sure I must have told him the story. Ask him. I'll bet he'll remember." Dr. Light bunched his fingers. "Hopefully, he'll know why it's so important. Otherwise, I have no idea how the vase is significant."

"Understood. I will call him shortly. How is your condition?"

"My condition? Oh..." Dr. Light sat back in his bed, relaxed. "Can't complain. My ribs are somewhat bruised and my left leg is broken. In fact, I'm waiting to go into surgery right now."

"Surgery?" Roll nearly gasped.

"Oh, don't worry about me, it's not serious. They just need to cut away some of the torn ligaments in my leg so that the bone can start healing. It sounds worse than it is. The doctors say that the ceiling landed in such a way that it really didn't put as much pressure on me as it should have, kind of like a little arch."

"How long until you are back on your feet?"

"Oh, weeks, at least. To make sure I have no complications. Plus I'll need physical therapy in order to be walking comfortably again. At my age though, I'm lucky to have survived something like this. I've still got some fight left in me," he said as he swung his fist energetically. In the back of his mind, though, he knew this would just be the first in a long series of hospital visits for his deteriorating body. There were fewer days ahead than behind.

"Oh, one last thing, Dr. Light. Dr. Wily destroyed your new type of teleporter."

"Oh, dear, you don't think... you don't think that's where Rock has gone to?"

"I don't know, Dr. Light. I don't know."

"I never got the chance to test it on a live subject before. The transfiguring system. Oh dear. And I'm here in the hospital."

"Don't stress out, Dr. Light. We'll find him soon enough. I believe wherever he is he's safe."

"I hope you're right, dear."

* * *

"It seems we were just here, doesn't it?" Link said as he closed the top of his knapsack.

"I hate seeing you go," Zelda said.

"I know. But it's what I do, I guess."

"I'll try and keep him out of trouble for you," Mega Man said as he smiled.

Zelda nodded. "Have you got everything you need?"

"I should," Link said as he patted his bag. "Take care of Buzzy for us," he said, looking down at the green blob wiggling back and forth next to Zelda's train.

"Um, I'll try. I'm not really sure how though."

Link knelt in front of the buzzblob. "Buzzy, take care of Zelda for me."

Buzzy burbled in response. Link laughed quietly.

"Let's go," he said to Mega Man. The two traveled down out of the castle and into the grassy courtyard. Fresh blue air hit them as they strolled down the garden path. Link looked back and saw Zelda, the Seer, and Buzzy were standing on the wall, waving goodbye to them. He smiled and waved back, glad that he had such friends. Mega Man looked where Link was and waved back as well.

The castle gate was already open and they passed under it to the field of trees before them.

"So what is our next destination?" Mega Man asked as they walked across the limestone bridge.

"Well, the last time I had a mushroom," Link said as he pulled out the small fungus from his pocket, "I brought it to the Magic Shop and she gave me a magic powder. But that was with a regular forest mushroom, not one made of copper," he said, cautiously fingering it. "Can't say I know what she'll do with a metal one. If she can do anything with it at all. It may be a dead end. But it's the only place I've got so far."

"Where is the witch's shop located?"

"East, but we're not going there," Link said resolutely. "We need to stop at a fairy fountain first."

"A fairy fountain?" Mega Man hadn't a clue what that could be, but it sounded unnecessary. "Can we afford the time to stop there?"

"We can't afford not to stop there. Fairies are invaluable. If I were struck down in battle, the fairy would release itself and heal me. Fairies have saved my life countless times."

The pair loped down the treaded path and into a valley near swampland. Walking around its border they came to a dark cave in the cliff wall. Link entered and Mega Man followed. As they cantered down the tunnel, Mega Man could hear the faint sounds of harps playing, sounding like angels on high. He could hear the gentle sound of lapping water in the distance. The light near the end grew brighter and he found a pool of water in the overhanging cavern. Lights like big fireflies danced around the pond.

Wait, they weren't fireflies at all. Mega Man adjusted his eyes to accept more light and found they were actually tiny people! With wings! And tiny little dresses! They even had small antenna poking out of their auburn hair. The white aura around them seemed to sparkle like stars. This was extraordinary! This was the first time Mega Man had seen something truly magical, something that only existed in fantasies in his world.

"They... they're fairies!" he said astonishedly. "They're tiny flying people. And they... they..."

"Jeez, you'd think you'd never seen fairies before," Link said as he fetched an empty bottle from his knapsack and uncorked it.

"I haven't! They don't exist." Mega Man exclaimed, almost hypnotized by the fluttering creatures. A whole new species of intelligent life. Almost unconsciously he stepped forward into the pond, his large boot making a ripple in the clear water. The fairies flew about in random patterns, seemingly undisturbed by Mega Man's encroachment. He reached out a hand and tried to touch one, leaning forward slowly. He seemed mesmerized by their pale white light that seemed so peaceful.

"Whoa," Mega Man realized he was losing his balance on an unstable rock and circled his arms to try and stay up. But it was too late. He fell forward with a gigantic splash. Fairies skittered about from the commotion and surprise.

Link threw back his head in boisterous laughter. "Ha ha ha! Hey, while you're down there, think you can catch one for me? Ha ha ha!"

Mega Man, water dripping down his face, glowered at Link.

Link's laughter faded down to aftermath chuckles. "Ahh, that was good." He clutched the bottle in one hand and the cork in the other. After being so delighted, he tried to switch to focusing on being stealthy and capturing one. "Come here," he mumbled to himself.

Link set his sights on one of the closer bright lights flickering around. It flew back and forth, just out of his reach. Link crept closer and sprung out, using his entire body to pull the fairy into the jar in a flash. Quickly, he corked the bottle.

Link raised it up in the air triumphantly. "All right, I caught a fairy!" He looked down at Mega Man. "Ahem, sorry."

Suddenly, one of the fairies flew close to Link and started circling him. "Whoops," he uttered. The little white light flew around and around Link at fast speeds, leaving a trail of stardust drifting down.

"What was that?" Mega Man asked as he stood up, water sloughing off his metal hide.

"It healed me. Or it would have if I was hurt. If they get close to you, they'll spin around you and cure your wounds to a certain level."

Mega Man thought back to his power level, partially drained from their first encounter with a buzzblob. Would it really work? Would the fairy's magic heal him too? Mega Man briefly wondered whether he was compromising his own beliefs by trying it. But if he was going to live here, how long until his power winked out permanently. Mega Man trudged deeper into the pond, trying to inspect one of the sprites up close. They darted back and forth around him, until he was knee deep in the center of the pool. They seemed to be ignoring him. He tried running through the pond trying to catch one, sloshing water up and down, looking like a juvenile trying to catch a butterfly. The fairies didn't circle him. In fact, they treated him like he wasn't there, floating right across his nose. Mega Man checked his power level and found it unchanged from where it was before - half-power.

"I don't understand. You're clearly close enough to them," Link said as he scratched his head under his cap.

"Perhaps it doesn't work for me because I'm not organic," he said. "Or perhaps I'm not a creature of magic?"

"Maybe. I guess you'll just have to watch yourself from now on," Link said. Once they arrived at the Magic Shop, he would see if a red potion had any effect. At the back of his mind, he worried. Fairies and potions were about the only two manners of healing in Hyrule. If they didn't work, what would happen if they met something that his armor wouldn't hold up against.

 **Next Chapter: The Sword of Storms**


	17. The Sword of Storms

"Excuse me?" Zelda said as she entered the room. "Are you in here? Is anyone in here?" She would have knocked, but her arms were full with the buzzblob.

"Just a minute! Mmm, mmm," the Seer called out from behind the curtain. He tugged it back and came out with a bowl of white and yellow seeds, grinding them with a blunt stick. "Yes, dear Princess, what is it?"

"Is that another experiment you're doing?" she asked.

"Of course not. It's my lunch."

"Oh, well, I have a question," she held up Buzzy, who had his eyes half-shut, not looking so well. "How am I supposed to take care of this thing? What does it eat? Does it eat? I don't even see a mouth."

"Intriguing, intriguing. Let's see," the Seer walked over to his bookshelf and took out a thick volume. "Buzzblobs," he began reading. "Also known as kukemages. Attempts to attack it with a sword or short-range weapon will result in a nasty electric shock. In lieu of something long-range, it is best to avoid these slow moving creatures. They tend to stay indigenous to the southeastern quadrant of Hyrule in dry areas. Also, if you sprinkle magic powder on them, some say something strange might happen."

"So, what, it eats magic powder?"

"Ooh, methinks not. Tis a magical creature by nature. Let me take a look." The Seer put down his bowl and held out his arms for the Buzzblob. Zelda delivered the hefty baby into his hands.

"Oh, wook at da wittle baby buzzy, yes, youse is a big baby, yes, you is. Does da baby want some mashed seeds, does he, does he?" The Seer picked up a spoon of the white mush and held it in front of Buzzy while cradling him with his other arm. "Here comes the birdy!" he said as he flew the spoon around in front of the green critter. The buzzblob didn't seem to care much about it, just kept staring straight ahead.

"Um, yeah," Zelda said. "You keep working on that. I've got some other things to do." Zelda hastily exited the room before she got sick on any more of the Seer's baby talk.

The castle was starting to shade as the daylight from the windows dimmed. The pages were running around with candles, lighting the torches. Again that day, her thoughts came back to Mega Man and Link, wondering what they were doing, if they were in trouble or if they were wandering around lost. This wasn't a desire to be out there with him, fighting monsters and solving clever mysteries. This was about her own feelings of helplessness in these times of crisis, due to the fact she was a princess. Everyone was bent on protecting her as if she was as delicate and powerful as the Triforce. She wanted to be treated as an equal, she wanted to find out this mystery with them. This was about her abilities as a person, as a member of the castle.

As she turned the corner to the next corridor she spotted the purple robe of Noktwor rush through the archway down the hall. Zelda's interest piqued and without much thinking she decided to follow him. If there was ever a better opportunity, it wouldn't show itself for some time.

Picking up her dress she ran down to where she saw the advisor dart past. She looked left and saw a wooden door shutting at the end of the hall. Curious. That door led down to the basement, a storage room. Zelda picked up the pace and quietly opened the door too. She heard the footfalls of Noktwor on the stone steps spiraling downward. As quiet as she could she gingerly stepped down the staircase, otherwise her hard shoes would be making a lot of noise. She thought about taking them off, but decided she didn't want her feet to get dirty.

Cautiously, she stopped at the point where the wall ended. A candle's light flickered off the wall, reflecting some dim shadows. She carefully peeked around the corner and saw Noktwor taking a seat at the far end of the table. Three other people she didn't recognize were seated as well, wearing civilian clothing, no one she recognized. Opposite the vizier was a character shadowed by the candlelight. His face was too dimmed to see him well.

"You're late," the man in black said in an unearthly gravely voice that was anything but human.

"It wasn't my fault," Noktwor said in his nasal voice.

"Yes, many things aren't your fault," the black figure snidely commented.

"I have to keep my duties, or I'll be suspected. That damn bitchness is already sniffing up my skirt."

The three others sniveled with laughter. Zelda was visibly taken aback that the vizier had used such language, especially regarding her. No one in the castle dared talk with such vulgarity.

"We are not pleased with your performance, Noktwor. You've done some sloppy work. Some very sloppy work."

"I did what I told you I would, didn't I? I secured the pendants. It's not my fault that stupid old man decided to ruin our plans."

"They know your motive. They know your method. They have the pendants returned. If it wasn't for the back-up plan, none of you would be alive right now."

Zelda bit her lip as she wondered about the implications of this. Noktwor was working for somebody and working with somebody. And that someone had a plan, but what was it?

"Your guild of thieves," the man in black continued, "Is no better than common rats and snakes. You were too slothful and thick-headed to get those pendants where they needed to go before Link swooped down on you."

"It wasn't our fault," one of them said. "We had his back to the wall and then this blue guy came in and wiped us out. You shoulda seen him. He's got some freaky powers-"

"I am well aware of this person. This ally of his. I've already started preparations to render him ineffectual. He is not the reason you failed. You are. I do not tolerate poor performance. I do not tolerate excuses. And I especially do not tolerate insolence."

Noktwor curled his upper lip in defiance. "So what-"

"Silence," the shadowed figure said. "There is someone foreign here."

Zelda was already pumping her legs up the stairs. Now, she had the evidence to accuse Noktwor of treason. Immediately, she headed towards Horace's room.

* * *

The sign next to the door read 'Magic Shop'. Seemed explanatory enough. The shanty looked thin and scrawny. There was what looked like an elongated cow skull on the thatched red roof, hanging over the entry. The wood on the door seemed a very aged gray and brown.

"We go in?" Mega Man asked.

"Yup," Link answered. He stepped up the three stairs and opened the door. The shop had a long table stretched out in the middle of the room with three large pots in it, colored red, green, and blue. A man in an olive green hooded robe sat down in the corner of the table and wall and mixed a pot of potion. Next to the door a witch stirred a cauldron full of a bubbling red ooze. She had white stringy hair, a long hooked nose, and black garb complete with pointy hat.

"Double, bubble, toil and trouble. What business do you have for me today?"

"Do you still make mushroom brew here?" Link asked

"Mushroom brew! No one's brought me a mushroom for a very long time," she cackled. "Oh, how I miss the sweet pungent smell of the forest mushroom."

"Well, it's not exactly a forest mushroom," Link said as he pulled out the copper mushroom from his pocket. "Can you do anything with this?"

The witch dropped her jaw and let go of her wooden stirring spoon, which fell in the pot with a *blurp*. "A... copper mushroom. OOOOOH, you found it! You found it!" She scooped the mushroom out of Link's hand and held it up with both hands, like a delicate flower, while she pedaled her legs in place like a little kid. "Oh my, wait right here." The witch sped into the house, jumping over the table like a champion athlete and behind a door at the back of the room.

"Wow, that old lady can move," Mega Man commented.

Link smiled and approached the assistant near the pots. "Welcome. As long as you have an empty bottle you can take your pick. Red mends health, green restores magic, and blue does both. Would you like a sample of the red potion?"

"Uh, can he try it?" Link said as he thumbed back to Mega Man.

"Absolutely." The assistant took a wooden spoon out and dipped it into the red goo he was stirring, pulling out a bright red sample.

Mega Man looked apprehensive. "I'm not sure if I can-glup-" The assistant shoved the ladle into his mouth. Mega Man now had a heaping spoonful of red goop in his mouth and no way to get rid of it. He hadn't even a hole in the back of his mouth to swallow with.

"Well, is it working?" Link said.

"Ah reahy appwheahe wha oo are booin, buh ah cahha swawwow hih."

"What?" Link asked.

"He said he cannot swallow this?" the assisstant said.

"You have such digestive problems. How do you eat anything?"

"Ah don. Ih thehre omewhere ah cah spih hih ow?"

"Here," the assistant held up a jar to Mega Man's mouth.

"Ptoo!" He spit the red potion into a jar using his robotic tongue and mouth muscles.

"Well, then, red potion is a bust. Nothing affects you. You better be careful that your strength holds out, cause I don't know what's going to happen if you get hurt."

"I wouldn't worry. My power converter unit is self-sustaining. I have no known life-span."

"I'm more worried about battle."

"Woo-hoo!" the witch said as she came out. "This is gonna be good." She was dragging a large cauldron out from the back room, moving a few steps at a time.

"Uh, do you need some help with that?" Link asked politely.

"Nope, nope, got it all taken care of." She shoved the potion table back in one huge shove, clearing the way for her to drag her pot into the center of the room.

"How did you do that?" Mega Man asked the witch.

"I take my vitamins."

The cauldron was filled with a thick light blue texture, almost like liquid metal. She snatched Link's sword out of his scabbard while he was staring in the pot.

"Hey!" Link said, not expecting her to seriously use it on him.

"Now watch this." The witch stabbed the sword deep into the runny fluid. The bubbling ceased for a moment, as if it reacted surprised at the sword in its midst. Then it started boiling even greater than before. Tiny tendrils of purple electricity could be seen in the mix as the goo started swirling around the blade. The light in the room seemed dim as the blade started absorbing the liquid, as if it was going down the drain. As the potion level depleted, the sword began glowing with a strange blue energy, almost stained with it. Link knew something good was happening.

The blade sucked up the last drop of potion, leaving the cauldron cleaned. The witch handed back the sword to Link. "Now your sword retains the power of the storm inside it. It can amplify its magic power. Isn't it amazing?"

Link tilted the sword back, looking at its new electric blue color. "It sure is." Honestly, he didn't feel any difference, but it felt more powerful. There really wasn't any such thing as a bad upgrade to a sword, so he replaced the blade in its sheath and thanked the elderly maiden.

The two exited the magic shop and looked around.

"Well, that was helpful. But it didn't really assist in our quest," Mega Man said. The two started walking west down the river bank.

"The power of the storms," Link said idly. "It's as if the ether medallion is now infused into my sword. I wonder if perhaps this could open a door somewhere."

"Access to a weather-related door. Is there any-"

A spear burst out of a nearby bush, headed straight at Link's head. Mega Man's super fast reflexes caught the polearm a millisecond before it would have impacted. Link instinctively fell back and rolled away, drawing out his sword in the process.

"Nice catch."

Mega Man threw the spear away and turned to the bush where it came from, arming his Mega Buster. "Show yourself!"

A rush of moblins, armored with spiked shoulder pads and roman helmets, came running out of the bushes, behind the trees, brandishing spears and javelins. They snarled and barked, dripping drool from their jowls as they encircled and surrounded them. Slowly they closed in.

"Okay, wait. I changed my mind. Go back in."

 **Next Chapter: The Vase of Dr. Selkirk**


	18. The Vase of Dr. Selkirk

Roll came down to the living room to see how the reconstruction was progressing. Their hefty insurance bills were now finally starting to pay off. Construction robots were repairing the walls and the new furniture was already sent in and set up. Two humans were supervising the construction outside, wandering from room to room and from their mobile van, making sure the house was being arranged exactly as it was before. Hopefully, it would be difficult to even tell that a disaster had taken place here once they had finished.

A mettool skittered across her path, on its way to some other section of the castle. She tucked her feet back and kept on her path once it crossed. The living room couch was there, a different color than what she remembered, perhaps they couldn't find the original. No matter though. The new holographic TV was also there, and other technological components such as the sound system and light fixtures, along with the table's personal terminal for operating the various components.

She pulled up the monitor to eye level and activated the call sequence.

"Dr. Mihail Sergeivitch Cossack. Eurasia."

The terminal monitor listed a series of commands showing it was connecting. The speaker piped up. "This call is long-distance and you will be charged an additional fee for connecting as described in the terms of agreement contract with TeleTech International. Do you accept these terms?"

"Yes," Roll said, slightly irritated.

The terminal continued its scrolling list of connection protocols. It then sounded a tone that indicated the call was waiting to be connected on the other end. An image of a bubbly preteen girl came on the screen.

"Hello?"

Roll recognized her as Kalinka, Dr. Cossack's daughter. "Hello. This is Roll. Can I speak to your father please?"

"Oh, Roll! Hi, I didn't recognize you," she said in a Russian accent. Her English was excellent, due to her penchant for western culture typical of a thirteen-year-old. "You've got something on your head."

Roll remembered she was still wearing her battle gear, including her demi-helmet. She had never thought to take it off because she had no feelings of comfort one way or the other. "Dr. Light has been upgrading me," she responded.

"Wow, looks pretty cool. What sort of upgrades?"

"I've been reconfigured for a battle environment. My power converter has been upgraded to accommodate energy pulses and spikes in my new sensory webnet. My servo-globules have been attached with EMT's in order to-"

"Yeah, yeah, that's nice. Did you get an arm cannon like Mega Man?"

"No. I do have these two laser pistols." She pulled the guns out of her holsters and held them up akimbo.

Kalinka whistled in awe. "That's pretty sweet. Can you shoot something?"

"Um, I don't think this is the appropriate place for that."

"Oh, well, maybe you can show me some other time. Did you want to talk to Papa?"

"Yes, please. Is he available?"

"He's working on some new robots. But I'll go see." Kalinka slid away from the screen, displaying an empty couch. Off camera, Roll could hear Kalinka yelling in Russian at her father. However, she could understand Russian, along with a myriad of other languages.

"Daaaaaad!" Kalinka yelled. "Roll's on the phone!"

Faintly, from what sounded like across the house, Dr. Cossack responded, "What!"

"I said Roll's on the phone!"

"Rose is on the phone?"

"ROLL! ROLL is on the phone."

"What does she want?"

Kalinka popped back on the screen. "What do you want?"

"I need to ask your dad some questions about a vase."

"K, hang on." Kalinka left the viewscreen again, apparently only moving about three feet away, despite her father being barely within earshot. "She says she wants to ask you about a vase!"

"Stop yelling from across the house and just come here!"

Roll heard Kalinka sigh angrily and saw her walk behind the couch into another room out of sight. After a few moments, the screen shifted upwards as Dr. Cossack's face came on the screen, squished by Kalinka's connection above. He appeared to be in a garage-like room with many machines.

"Hello, Roll? It is good to be hearink your voice."

"Likewise, doctor. Have you heard about the recent attack?"

"Acch, terrible news. Is everyone all right?"

"Dr. Light suffered a broken leg and numerous small injuries, but he's fine. I just talked to him. He's having surgery soon."

"Aaah, good, good. I see you have new style."

"Yes, I've recently received some upgrades."

Dr. Cossack nodded affirmatively. On the upper screen, Roll could see Kalinka re-enter the living room and sit on the couch. She slouched in and started flipping through channels on the remote.

"Kalinka, darlink, you can hang up the phone now."

"WHAT?" she screamed as she turned around on the couch.

"I said TURN OFF THE PHONE!" Dr. Cossack screamed.

Kalinka jumped straight up as she heard her dad's voice come through the phone she had forgotten was still on. "Oh, sorry." She hit a button next to the screen and the image of Dr. Cossack scrolled up until he filled it at normal resolution.

"Daughters..." he said idly. "So what is this question you are hawink?"

"When Dr. Wily attacked, we thought he was out to destroy us. But it appears he only wanted to obtain an object. I've discovered that this object was a vase that was given to him by someone. We're hoping you know. Here's a picture."

Roll accessed the menu interface and displayed the picture she had uploaded - the same one in which she had first found it. The picture showed up on a corner of the screen.

"Da, I am rememberink this. This is near, thirteen years, I am thinkink?"

"Approximately. Do you see the vase in the background?"

"Yes, I am rememberink Dr. Light telling me somethink about it."

"Yes, what was it?"

"It was gift. Gift from other professor, before you were built. Yes, yes, Dr. Selkirk, I believe."

"Dr. Selkirk? Dr. Light knew Dr. Selkirk?" Roll said quietly.

"Yes, lonk time ago. Before... incident."

Dr. Selkirk was a premiere roboticist more than a decade ago. A rival of Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, and the remainder of the robot-building community, he was, suffice to say, a great computer mastermind. His designs were the foundation behind many of the AI programs used today. However, his mental stability was less than perfect. Several times at events such as conferences and award ceremonies he had burst out into violent fits of rage over minor particulars such as misprepared food. His laboratory had the highest employee turnover rate of anyone. And his personal demeanor was... less than stellar. If he hadn't come up with such amazing ideas, corporations would have never done business with him. He was both genius and madman. His way of looking at the world was so different from everyone else it had to have been the reason for both his success and downfall. One day, unfortunately, his dark half got the better of him and he went on a rampage in one of his labs, horrifically killing twelve of his own scientists. He was apprehended by a S.W.A.T. team and put into a maximum security prison where he committed suicide before he could stand trial.

"I had no idea Dr. Light was friends with him," Roll said.

"Oh, da, da, this was beink before he went all koo-koo in the head... moreso. As I am recallink, Selkirk said he made wase himself."

"Really? Did he say anything else about it? He didn't store a secret formula inside the vase for safe-keeping, did he?"

Dr. Cossack laughed. "No, no, would have found that by now, I think, no?"

He was right, nothing was stored inside the vase. Roll would have found that by now. And if Dr. Selkirk had, in fact, created it, it wasn't of any anthropological significance, such as the key to a lost city or something silly like that. What was it about this vase?

"Did Dr. Light tell you anything else about the vase?"

"No, nothing important. It was made out of typical clay. Typical dye for the patterns. Based off a hydria design with handles. He said it looked nice under the paintink," he shrugged. "I am sorry I am not being of much help."

"No, you've been a great help, Dr. Cossack. I'm sure I'll be contacting you again soon."

"Give my best to Dr. Light."

"I will. Thank you. Goodbye."

"Dasvidanya, Roll."

* * *

The visceral moblins snarled and snapped at him like bulldogs. Their jowls dripped with saliva as their burning yellow eyes dug into them. Their helmets flattened their piggish ears, making them seem like animals ready to attack. They poked their spears at the two viciously, egging them on to take some action. As they closed in, Mega Man and Link found themselves at each other's backs.

"Sure is a lot of them," Mega Man said, reminding himself that these creatures weren't human and therefore not bound by the robot laws.

"Got anymore tricks in your sleeve? Or arm?"

"Well, I'm a pretty high jumper."

"All right," Link focused on retaining magic energy in his sword, gathering his physical energy to spring forward. "Do it!"

Link shot out from Mega Man's back and rushed into the circle of moblins. He thrust upward with his sword, deflecting an incoming spear. Slinging his shield off his back he struck the moblin in the face with it as he tucked his arm into the leather holding rings. Link continued with the momentum, barreling outside the circle, giving him more breathing room. The moblins roared and ambled forward.

Mega Man jumped straight in the air, tumbling end over end. Twisting his body around he fired his arm cannon down at the ground. The plasma shot hit the moblin down on the head, tearing him in two. He vaporized in a puff of white smoke.

Mega Man's inertia carried him forward into the branches of a tree. He hit stomach-first into a knotty bough. "Ow, this isn't what I had in mind," he said as he struggled to stay on. The limb began to crack from Mega Man's weight as the moblins clamored around the tree, poking their polearms up into the leaves. "Uh-oh." The branch snapped and Mega Man came tumbling down into the mix, falling on his hands and knees. One of the moblins grabbed him by the neck and thrust him up against the tree as he bellowed with rage, saliva spattering out of his mouth.

"Say it, don't spray it." Mega Man thrust his arm cannon up into the monster's abdomen and fired. The plasma burst shot through his body like melted butter. He transformed into a hazy fog as Mega Man dropped back to the ground.

"Who else wants some?" Mega Man spun around and found three moblins coming at him. He fired a plasma shot at the leader.

He suddenly roared and held up a gigantic green boulder. The plasma shot impacted with the rock and dissipated as the other moblins gathered behind him.

"What th'?" Mega Man said. He kept firing at the stone, but each shot kept getting absorbed. The green began to turn into orange and red. His plasma shots were heating up the rock, yet the moblins still held onto it. "Grr, why don't you come out of there," Mega Man said as he fired with intensity. The boulder glowed red hot, and he could smell the searing flesh as the beasts made their way toward him, defending his volley. The monster grunted and threw the rock at Mega Man in a surprisingly fast feat of strength. The blue bomber hadn't the time to escape. The irony of Rock being crushed by a rock flashed through his mind. He leaned back as far as he could. His feet firmly planted, he touched the grass with his hands as the boulder passed overhead, seemingly in slow motion. His thoughts turned to his battle with Guts Man as the stone crumbled into pieces behind him.

The robot pushed off and uprighted himself as the moblins continued their assault. Another had already picked up a rock and hurled it at him. He jumped to avoid the incoming obstacle. "Jeez, you guys are strong."

Link parried and thrust in close combat with the moblins nearby. He wasn't that used to defending against spears. Their long range was making it difficult, but their great length made them slow. He sliced one in two with his sword, the arrowhead dropped to the ground. Using the slicing thrust, he kept into the spin and sliced through the moblins belly, dissipating him into white smoke. The others kept closing in though. Link hovered behind his shield as they came at him. A few pokes with his sword was nothing compared to the beating he was taking. He dug into his knapsack and pulled out a bomb.

"Let's see you handle this," he said and lobbed the bomb into the crowd, not looking where it was going. It landed behind the mob grouped around him, the fuse ominously hissing, while the monsters continued unabated. The bomb exploded, sending several of the beasts flying forward and up in the air like bowling pins. Link attacked and surfaced out from the melee. He had to keep away from being trapped in a corner, which the moblins were trying to do.

"Let's see what this baby can do," Link said as he looked at his sword. "Watch out, Mega Man." The blue robot turned away for a split second to see what Link was doing as he defended against the continuous rock attacks. He leaned back and gathered the magic into his sword, the power of the storms. Violet tendrils of electricity danced around the blade as the skies darkened. Link held his sword up and a thick column of electricity struck it, feeding into the blade. He spun around and arms of lightning shot out, rotating around, zapping the enemies they touched. Several of the moblins that Link had already damaged vanished into thin air.

The light show over, the lightning retracted into the blade and the sun returned. Link regained his footing, leaning over his sword, panting. "I'm out!"

"What?" Mega Man shouted over the ruckus.

"I'm out. That used up all my magic energy. I'm not used to it," he looked to the monsters recovering from the blow, regaining their senses. Mega Man jumped over the last rock and ran back to Link's side.

"Are you all right?" he asked as he saw several more monsters coming out from the woods. Reinforcements. "There's more coming!" Mega Man said. A lot more.

"We can't take them all," Link gasped. He stood up, holding up his shield and started moving backwards as the beasts crept forward. Mega Man treaded with him.

"This does not look well," Mega Man commented.

Link glanced behind him as he felt his footing change. They were backed up to the river bank, with water rushedly raging below them. "We have to jump!" Link said.

"What? Are you crazy?"

"You can swim, can't you?"

"Not really," Mega Man said as he eyed the monsters about to pounce.

"Now's a good time to leeeaaaarrrrn!"

Link grabbed Mega Man's arm and pulled him down with him as he jumped into the river.

 **Next Chapter: Down by the River**


	19. Down by the River

Link poked his head out of the waves, taking a colossal breath. Waves of water rushed over him. He had to time his breaths so he wouldn't end up swallowing a gallon of water. He was disoriented from the fall, looking around for something recognizable, but the walls of the river were all he could see, although he knew he was swiftly being carried east.

"Mega Man!" he yelled. Searching blindly for him. Little did he know Mega Man had sunk beneath the river.

He could feel the torrent pulling at him. His weight and density made him sink to the riverbed where he could see debris and particles rushing forward, fish swam around him and high speeds. Errant bubbles emerged from under his helmet. He looked up and saw Link's legs thrashing around at the river's surface. Thankful he made it all right, he leaped forward, carried by the river current and the water's buoyancy, following Link's little legs.

Link flailed about, looking for his friend. He spied a rock in the middle of the rushing river and swam for it, desperately hoping to grab it in the violent flow of the water, for he might not have another chance. The river's current carried him towards it and he grabbed onto the rocky surface. The river continued pulling at him with unseen arms, almost like it was beckoning for him. Link clutched on for dear life, hanging by the traction of his fingertips. Carefully he pulled himself towards the craggy island, clutching onto a spiky outcrop. Now he had enough torque to pull onto the land. He sat on the rock, catching his breath.

Mega Man saw the unusual spike in the middle of the river bed and Link's body stopping as he hit it. Hopefully, Link hadn't hit his head on it. He launched himself towards the earthy spike and clutched onto the side. The river's rapids picked up and it took all his strength to hang on as the water beat at him. He shut his eyes and grimaced.

"Mega Man!" Link shouted above the water. He hadn't seen him since he lost his grip when they hit the water. "Where are you!" He scoured the waves looking for a blue body in blue water, a challenge in itself. He looked behind him and in front, his mind racing at what had become of him. He must have really meant it when he said he couldn't swim and he suddenly felt a stab of guilt for forcing him into something so rashly. Link stood up and steeled himself to dive back into the water to search for him.

Suddenly, a blue helmeted head popped out of the water, gripping onto the rock. Link thanked the power of the Triforce inwardly as he helped him up onto solid ground.

"Well, that was fun," Mega Man said as he took off his helmet and shook the water out. His brown and black hair was tousled from the water.

"Were you swimming? I couldn't see you," Link asked.

"Not quite. The armor is so heavy and dense I sink to the bottom But the buoyancy adds to the power of my legs so I can jump pretty good distances in water. I was all right."

Link marveled at the power of that suit. It even had special features in certain situations. "Well, it looks like we're not going anywhere for a while."

"I know," Mega Man answered. "The current's picked up. It's too strong for us to try and navigate through now."

Link nodded. He toyed with the idea of trying to snag some of the driftwood that was passing by and constructing a raft, but any wood that came close was swiftly taken away. Plus, the quality would be dubious, and what was he going to tie the raft together with?

The hero picked out a spot on the rock and got comfy. There would be no telling how long it would be before the river swells wound down. Hopefully it wouldn't be a matter of days, as this rock was no place to get some shut-eye.

Mega Man stared out from his place. He could go nowhere without Link, he would not survive in this world long without guidance. He thought about going for help, but he didn't know the land, nor how far they had traveled. The current would not allow him to return where he fell in so he could backtrack to the castle. Going further down the river was not an option either as who knew what perils lived deep down in the water. They were essentially stranded.

"How long does it take for the current to die down?" Mega Man asked.

"I don't know," Link said. "Could be a while." He dug into his knapsack and pulled out a blue-colored flute. It was made of a fine wood, shaped squat and rounded, like a long egg with a small mouthpiece, not like a standard flute. The finger-holes were situated strangely at first glance, but when Link held it up to his mouth they fit just where his hands were supposed to go.

He began playing a slow melodic tune. Sustained fluid chords filled the tiny rock, giving the music a rich texture. He began descending into a low tune that reminded Mega Man of the songs of birds in the forest. It was very beautiful, though Rock could only appreciate the aestheticism of it.

"Where did you learn that?"

"I taught myself. I picked up this up along my last adventure, from a boy who used it to talk to animals. I played it to the rooster statue in the village and it became a magical bird that could take me around Hyrule in a flash."

 _Right, magical bird,_ Mega Man thought. _It just gets stranger and stranger around here._

Link continued, "I just kept playing it after I got it. Came very naturally to me for some reason." He blew a quick comical chord. "You wanna try it?" Link handed out the flute.

Mega Man held up his hand. "No, thanks, I can't play."

"Go on. Try it. See what you sound like."

"No, really, I mean I can't play. I can't breathe into it."

"Oh, fine." Link took the flute back. This man said and did the strangest things sometimes. He was an amazing warrior, but his idiosyncrasies and quirks were strange drawbacks. He could fight a slew of moblins, but he didn't have the breath to play a flute. The sun was beginning to set, casting an orange glow over everything.

"It would be difficult for me to live here," Mega Man said. "Everything here is based on nature. On natural life and it's related components. Biological, in a sense. Things other people have, even their energy. You use it like we use electricity, just taking it for granted. I didn't realize how difficult it might be for me to live here."

 _What did he mean by electricity,_ Link thought.

"I'm not saying it's primitive," the robot continued. "It's just different from what I'm used to. So different I don't know how long I can last here. What about my power levels, my programming error recovery, regular maintenance, upgrades, memory, parts degradation. I have no known lifespan, so theoretically, I can live forever. But what happens if part of me becomes detached. There aren't any factories here, there's no material I can used, nobody's even discovered titanium yet." He whispered to himself. "What if I become... full? I can't self-delete data from my memory drives. Would I stop remembering things?" He turned back to Link. "There's no one here who could help me. You just haven't advanced past the subsistence stage of civilization. No one really does things for the good of everyone else. Everyone here depends on themselves and themselves alone."

Link, who was cleaning his flute responded. "That's true. The monsters keep people separated. They have to band together in random places in Hyrule. Kakariko's the biggest village in the countryside. People aren't courageous enough to go out and fight them off. Someday that might change... I hope."

"We had a system very similar to yours way back in my world's past. We called it the medieval era. People lived on their own on farms, very rarely in villages. Each land had a king, and the center of commerce was in or around the castle. Of course, it wasn't as benevolent as your world. Many kings were corrupt. They used their influence to gain wealth and dominate citizens."

"Hyrule's always been peaceful, I think. Long as I can remember."

"I think someday, your world will become similar to mine. Maybe." Now Mega Man was very curious as to how this world would evolve. Would it become a technological utopia or still retain the scattered villas and disjointed people it always had. Many events in his history involved people becoming united over a common enemy or unfavorable conditions. But here, peace was the status quo, so the people had no reason to rise up, and became detached from one another.

"Maybe," Link responded. "Some day, I'd like to see what other worlds have in store though. I've explored every inch of Hyrule in my travels. It's starting to feel confining. We're somewhat closed off from the world with the mountains and plateaus around us. But I know there're other worlds out there. I want to explore them. See what else is out there. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic here. Like I've done the same thing over and over again."

Link dug into his bag, pulled out several tube-like sticks, and began attaching them together. "I figure I'd like to go out on the ocean. Maybe find this island of yours. Sounds pretty interesting."

"Uh, yeah. Interesting. I don't think you'll be able to get there by boat, unfortunately."

"Well, maybe I'll find something on it. The ocean, it... it's almost like I've got a repoire with it. Besides, what I bring back may help Hyrule in unimaginable ways."

"What are you doing?" Mega Man asked, referring to Link's activities.

"Fishing. Don't tell me they don't have fish where you come from."

"Yes, but they're... fished on a large scale. At least for food. Otherwise it's done recreationally."

"Well, I can definitely see that." Link said as he strung out his line and cast it into the waters.

The rushing water took the tiny artificial fish used for bait and played with it like a cat. The bobber rose up and down, tossed about like a tiny boat. They sat there as the sky darkened, hoping to catch a bite for supper. But all Link succeeded in catching was driftwood.

"Well, we could make a little hut, if we wanted to," Link said glibly. He was quite used to bad fishing days and it was useless to stress out about the lack of catchables.

Time passed. A blanket of stars soon swept over their heads, casting the two in deep blue light. Mega Man stared at the water, contemplating a life plan for his existence here. Link leaned back and kept his hand on his reel, waiting patiently for a bite, knowing the more time that passed was less time until he hooked something. Nothing but twigs and weeds so far. Suddenly, Link felt a tug on his line. He did not immediately jump as he had become accustomed to false news. Nonetheless he leaned up and took hold of the rod, reeling in the object.

The reel suddenly stopped. Link's first thought was that his line had snagged on something. The line was extremely far out, almost to the end of the reel. Link noticed the line slack off again and reeled it in. Again it stopped short.

"What the?"

"What's going on?" Mega Man asked.

"I think I'm snagged on something, but I'm not quite sure what. The line keeps going taut and slack every time I reel it in." Link tried it again with the same result. "I can't tell what it is. Feels like it might be big. It's not a fish. I hope." Link tried to pull the line up with the rod, but that yielded nothing. He was restraining his strength so the line wouldn't snap. He was more curious about what it was. "Maybe it's a rock? Or a turtle."

"It's moving forward," Mega Man suddenly realized. "It's coming towards us. That's why you're reeling up line."

"But what is it?"

"What is that?" Mega Man excitedly pointed down the river. A thick mist was rolling down the river, tumbling end over end like an unrolling cotton blanket.

"A fog?" Link asked. The vapor rapidly enveloped them, cold and clammy. The mass of the river and surrounding land became obscured as they look around bewildered. Link momentarily forgot his rod and began spinning line back in. "It's close whatever it is, I'm almost to the beginning of..."

Both Link and Mega Man's eyes widened and their jaws dropped as the fog cleared away. Link almost dropped his fishing rod.

A gigantic wooden sailing ship was navigating down the river, taking up nearly its entire width. Decaying holes were punctured in the upper hull. The sails looked in little better condition than a tattered rag, some sort of ink design long faded away printed on them. The bow was wrapped in rope, frayed at several ends dangling below. Ghostly lanterns swung back and forth on the deck and at the tops of darkened windows and portholes, like the invisible night watchmen. They realized that the ship was about to impact on their little rock and braced themselves to jump out of the way, even though hitting them was inevitable.

Suddenly, though, it stopped just short of the rock, the bow hovering over their heads. The two stood there, necks craned upwards, staring at the enormous vessel.

A rope ladder dropped down the side of the ship, landing in front of them. Link and Mega Man looked at it for a second, shrugged, and began climbing up.

 **Next Chapter: Ghost Ship**


	20. Ghost Ship

Link swung his legs over the rail and landed on the deck of an old galleon ship. Link had never seen anything quite like this. A thick massive pole stretched up to the sky holding up the tattered sail. All the standard sailing elements were situated on the ship - barrels and crates tied to the sides of the deck, a large anchor wheel with a chain around it, cannons perched at each side. Everything was so dark and gray, like it had been washed with a giant paintbrush, caked in dust and mold, as if no one had been on this ship in years. In fact, where were the people? A ship this size had to have a crew of more than a handful below deck. And someone had to have let that ladder go.

Mega Man climbed onto the deck. The floorboards creaked eerily below him. "Where is everyone?" he asked. "This is like a ghost ship."

"I think it is a ghost ship," Link said as he paced further onto the boat. He touched the projected handle of the anchor chain. The icy chill sent a shiver up his spine. "I don't like this..." The unnatural stillness gave way to a chilled breeze that swept over the boat.

"Look."

A mist spooled over the top of the cabin, the same as what foreshadowed the vessel, and poured onto the deck, streaming in from the broken windows, up through the cracks in the floorboard. Link backed away from the rising fog, back to the edge of the bow, getting ready to defend himself. The arms of the mist congealed in the center of the deck, swirling together. Pale blue-white translucent forms of people began to emerge from the cloud - ghosts. Link instinctively reached for his sword, but Mega Man held up his hand to stop him. They were dressed in pirate clothing, with bandanas and cutlasses at their sides. They were quite a various bunch, all shapes and sizes, from one brawny guy to another with strange glasses who appeared more bookworthy than seaworthy. The cloud shrank and dissipated as more persons floated out. The ghosts, seemingly languid and tired, distributed in multiple directions, paying no mind to Link or Mega Man. They each spread out over the ship and performed various jobs - turning the anchor crank, scrubbing and mopping the deck, pulling ropes, loading the cannons. But every one of them seemed so tired and listless, performing their duties slowly.

"Excuse me? Are you..." Link started to ask one of the spirits. The ghosts didn't respond at all, just kept turning the crank. He waved his hand through the ghost's body, passing through it like air. "Can you help us? Hello?"

"They don't appear to know we're here," Mega Man said as he examined a scrubber.

"Aye, they do. They simply don't care," came a rough voice.

The two perked up and looked at the center of the deck. Another thick cloud of mist was rolling up from the floor and collecting together. A squat man with a frazzled beard and an eye-patch materialized before the two. He had on a traditional pirate hat and a navy jacket dressed with gold buttons and blue pants.

"Name's Horatio. Pleased to make you acquaintance on this fine night."

"This is a ghost ship, isn't it? Real ghosts?" Link said. "Just like the rumors say."

"Aye, about as real as ye can get without having legs to stand on," he said, passing his own hand in and out of his body to emphasize his point. He sauntered up to Mega Man. "Yer a strange one."

"Yeah, I get that a lot."

"Oh, I'm not blaming ya, laddie. I'm hardly one to judge, eh?" He walked back and forth across the deck, his hands clasped together behind them. "So what brings ye landlubbers out here on this fine night fer sailin'. Conversin' with the fishies?"

"We were overwhelmed by some moblins and had to jump into the river to get away from them," Link responded.

"Ah, the mobbys back, eh. A collection of pig-dogs, they are."

"You know about the moblins?"

"Aye, many years ago they marauded the seas, perched out on islands, rafts, lookout towers, even submarines. You couldn't set foot in the bathtub without three or four of them jumpin' in with ye. Big tough scalawags, dumb as a brick though."

"How long has this ship... I mean?"

"A long, long time... I can't even tell you how long. Time has forsaken this ship." He walked up to the edge of boat, staring up at the moon in the mist. "It seems like centuries. We've been roaming these seas, wandering like a feather on the wind. Forever locked in this infernal sea-faring prison, doing the same duties every night. Been looking for an artifact... a treasure... from those centuries past. A legacy of a great hero. The Pearls of the Triforce."

"The Pearls of the Triforce?" Link said. "I have never heard of those, and I know a lot about the Triforce."

"Do ye now? Know yer history, do ye?" he turned around and quickly walked toward Link. "This land has gone through more changes than a butterfly. I remember a time when water covered all the land. Have ye ever heard of that legend?"

"I've heard rumors. I don't think it would be true though, given the current landscape and the fact that there are no documents about it."

"It's hard to read a document that's logged in salt-water, laddie." He shook his head. "Ignorant of yer own past," he muttered. "Nonetheless. It hardly matters, I'm not yer school-marm."

"Excuse me," Mega Man said, "But you haven't answered our question fully. How is it that you became ghosts?"

"Ah, lad, I wish I could answer that question myself. You see, the Pearls of the Gods were such a treasure of vast riches, said to grant amazing power. Some say it caused a tower to rise from the sea. Others say it led to a kingdom beneath the ocean. We wanted it. Oooh, we wanted it bad. The ultimate treasure. Greater than rupees, greater than gold. The fame, the glory, wealth, power. This whole ship was made of one like mind, to find those pearls. The desire... it consumed us, it led us. It was the real captain of this ship. And we sailed under that captain day after day... after day... after day... soon time started blurring together. I don't... I don't quite remember what happened or how it happened. We just kept going, oblivious to the rest of the world, forgetting even the most basic things, that land even existed, or the comfort of a woman... We just kept going... forever. And now we're this." He spread out his arms indicating himself. "Somehow along the waves, we forgot we were even alive."

He approached his toiling crew members. "My crew is just zombies now, working endlessly like bees, with no purpose or goal." He turned back to Link and Mega Man. "That's left up to me. Somehow, I think that when we find the pearls, the curse will be lifted. I have to believe that. I owe it to them to find the pearls. So we'll wander the waters of Hyrule until we find them. Someday."

"Well, we'll do what we can to help," Link said. "We'll keep an eye out for them." Personally, he didn't believe his story about the ocean covering Hyrule, but he was hearing more and more things he didn't understand these days anyway.

"Ah, we'd owe a great debt to the one who freed us from this curse."

"I promise you. If the pearls exist, they'll be found," Link said determinedly.

"Thank ye kindly for yer offer. Someday we'll find them." He stepped past them and over to the open bow of the ship. "Well, boys, 'tis a fine night for a sail, but the night won't be lasting forever, ye know. Where can I take you boys?"

"We're on a quest to try and find the fourth piece of the Triforce," Link said.

"Fourth piece? There is no fourth piece!"

"Yeah, that's what we said."

"We don't have much to go on here," Mega Man said. "We received a cloth indicating a fourth section but no clues on where it would be found or what would lead to it."

"Seems we've got similar problems, lads," he chortled. "Best ye don't go down my route."

"We don't plan to," Link answered.

"Ah, hmm, Hyrule's full of nooks and crannies. Can't go combing through the land willy-nilly. Have you consulted the fortune tellers of the land?"

"The royal Seer's checked through all the books and prophecies. Didn't find anything."

"How about the village elder?"

"Sahasrala died a short time ago. They haven't chosen the new village elder yet. Even if they did, he would be only a novice."

"Well, we're just up the creek without an oar, aren't ya."

"You could say that," Mega Man said.

"Wait, the Zoras. They might now. They hear everything in these waterways. If there's one people who know the untold parts of Hyrule, it's them."

The captain traversed up and around the cabin, taking his place at the highest point of the ship. "Men! Turn this boat around. Make way for Zora's waterfall. The sails, boys! Avast!"

The men turned away from their repetitive duties and started moving to different stations, pulling ropes, turning cranks, moving below deck and above deck. The sails fluttered suddenly and turned around. The elevation of the boat took a sweeping lean inward as the boat suddenly began revolving to the right. Loud creaking from the torque wrenching the ship could be heard all around. Link held out his hands and planted his feet firmly on the ground to keep from slipping. Mega Man's traction-induced treads did the work for him.

The captain continued barking orders to his men who did work at lackluster speed. Mega Man and Link watched the lands pass from the comfort of the deck.

 **Next Chapter: The Zora King**


	21. The Zora King

"All right, boys, let's go," Zelda said.

Horace gave the nod to his men, five of them in all, that confirmed Zelda's order. They were expecting a fight that might get ugly. After Agahnim's insidious plot to overturn the kingdom of Hyrule they were taking no chances. Traitors to the kingdom met with the harshest punishment. Horace unfastened his sword from his belt.

"Excellent work, your highness."

"Good you think so," she smirked. "I was afraid that it wouldn't be enough to get your attention." The contempt was clearly evident in her tone. Apparently, Horace chose to ignore it.

"An eyewitness account of treason is enough to lead to an arrest. After that, we'll be able to search his belongings, his documents, and take personal accounts."

"Good. I want to do everything possible to ensure his proper capture and arrest. He may lead us to an even higher authority trying to usurp the throne." She snickered. "And you said I couldn't do it."

"I'm sorry?" Horace asked innocently.

"You said I shouldn't be out there doing my own investigation. You said I should just stick to being a princess in my little castle."

"I never said that. I said that maybe it wasn't a good idea. Investigative work takes a lot of time and patience and you didn't demonstrate either of those during this. Going down into his secret meeting was a spectacular risk. You could have easily been captured, assaulted. I don't know anything about this man in black, but he sounds powerful, possibly supernaturally."

"He doesn't matter. Noktwor will lead us to him and the plot will be unraveled. And I will be the one who brought him down. You should all stop treating me like I'm incapable after this."

They reached the entrance to the basement door and stopped. Horace turned to his men. "All right, we expect resistance so work quick and efficiently. You two move to the right, you two to the left. Keep them surrounded."

"Noktwor is quite devious so be on guard. He may try to pull some magic defense like invisibility, but I'll be ready for that." Zelda had been preparing her magic defenses, in preparation for a sneak attack. "Let's go!" She pulled open the door and the soldiers began filing down the stairs. Horace sighed angrily, looking at Zelda. His expression said what he was thinking, that he was none-too-happy with her trying to usurp his leadership, bark his orders for him. Nonetheless he followed suit down the stairs, getting his sword ready for conflict. Zelda hurried down after him, her heart beating from the thrill of excitement. She was so focused on anticipating what might happen she took no notice that her teeth were clenched together, sweat beginning to form on her brow. She turned the corner of the stairwell wall and found the guards had already distributed around the...

...fallen Noktwor and two thieves.

"What... what..." Zelda stammered.

The table and chairs in the room had disappeared, leaving only the stores behind the fences. Horace bent down to Noktwor's body. He was face down, sprawled out on the floor like he had been squashed with one arm up and one down. His eyes retained the classic dead man's gaze. He flipped him over. There were no stab wounds or discoloration on the throat.

"Not sure of the MO. Probably magic death. Poison, fire, something dark."

Zelda had her hands up to her face, eyes brimming with tears. She had gone from determined woman to scared little girl in an incident. "The man in black. It had to be him."

"Could be," Horace said.

"The same with these two, sir," said one of the guards who was inspecting the other corpses.

"I didn't want him dead," Zelda whispered. "Oh, no, what if he heard me? He heard me and got scared and..."

It came to her in a flash. She _was_ impatient and overbearing. She was so dead-set on solving this mystery by herself she forgot the consequences of her actions.

"You see what I told you?" Horace said. "This is why I thought you should stay back from the investigation. Now we have no leads or clues. This man in black has disappeared and we may never see him again."

"Oh, gods, it is my fault."

"You wanted to prove to everyone you were capable, but no one ever thought you were incapable. It just wasn't the role you were designed to play. I'm sure with training you could, but you can't just jump into something and expect to excel at it."

Her eyes watering, she shook her head. She thought she wanted to be treated as an equal, that other people were trying to keep her down, but she really wanted to be treated as better than them, just like a princess would.

"Not to mention," he continued, "Your own life is now in jeopardy. If the man in black knows it was you spying on him he'll likely be after you. If he isn't already. If he did this to his own men, he has no qualms against killing."

"What am I gonna do? What have I done? I'm so sorry."

"There's nothing to do. We'll inspect the corpses, see if we can find anything on them. But I doubt we will. This guy is thorough."

Zelda put down her hands. "We need Link. His life is danger too. If he wants the kingdom, or the Triforce, he wants Link too."

"Link could be anywhere. Are _you_ gonna go out looking for him?"

* * *

Link and Mega Man waved goodbye as the ship began moving down the river again.  
"Thanks for the ride," Mega Man exclaimed.

"I hope you find what you're looking for!" Link said.

"Aye, take care of yourselves! All right, men shove off!"

The ship sailed smoothly down the river as the sky began to lighten. The galleon began to fade from the light penetrating the ghostly hull. Soon it had disappeared from whence it came, back into the land of legends and rumors.

"I've never seen ghosts before," Mega Man said. "Were they really there? Or was it an illusion?"

"You talked to them. You tell me," he said as he turned to the swampy landscape.

"Have you ever seen ghosts before?"

"Yes, but those were evil spirits," he said, remembering some of the vapors that emerged from the turned up gravestones. This was neither the time nor place for that discussion though. They had a king to see.

As they started through the swamp, Mega Man said, "I read about the Zoras in one of the Seer's encyclopedias. They were once a peaceful people, no?"

"No one told them that," he said, unbuckling his shield. He trudged through the mushy land, sloshing through ankle-deep water, knowing what path to take. The Zoras were unusually quiet along this part. He had taken a route with as few encounters as possible, but this was a little unusual.

"Zoras are monsters," Link said, running through the land. "Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They've chucked enough fireballs at me to roast the village. They pop in and out of the water too fast to hit so you just gotta avoid them."

"The book didn't mention a Zora King though."

"Well, he didn't attack me. Here."

They stood in front of a large waterfall. Ahead of them was a grassy patch to stand in front of to summon the Zora King. Link jumped into the water and began swimming up to the island. With a grunt he pulled himself up and looked back at Mega Man.

"What are you waiting for? It's all right, there's no current," he said as he shook himself off.

Mega Man shrugged his shoulders and jumped high in the air, raising his arms. He plummeted into the water and sank like a rock. Link watched him go down into the swampy water, concern rising within him. Small collections of bubbles broke the surface.

Suddenly, he could see him rising back up out of the water, bursting forth from it and landing perfectly beside him.

"No problem," he said.

Link cocked his head and the two turned to the waterfall.

"How does this work?" the blue robot asked.

Several little pools of water began swirling in front of them. Small little tridents poked up out of the water, along with green scaly heads. They were Zoras, emerging out of the water through the whirlpools, pounding their spears up and down. The description in the bestiary volume was true. They had wrinkled green scaly skin and membrane-like fins jutting out. Their mouths drooped downwards like groupers, framed with thick orange lips and two small fangs poking out. Their yellow eyes were slit like a demonic cat and they burbled over and over as they rose up, like a chant.

"What's going on?" Mega Man asked.

"I don't know. I've never seen this before. Be ready for anything."

A large group of Zoras now stood in front of them chanting "Ug-a-wah, ug-a-wah, ug-a-wah, ug-a-wah."

A deep blue shadow began fading in behind the waterfall, getting closer until it burst through the curtain. A gigantic Zora slowly waded out from behind the falls, swaying back and forth as his gigantic berth pushed the water aside.

"ERRAROUGH..." he moaned. Link got a whiff of his fishy breath that was none too pleasant. "Who disturbs my slumber. Some puny humans? I should dip you in butter and snack on you for breakfast."

Mega Man armed his plasma cannon, hoping this guy didn't classify as human either.

"We just want to know something," Link piped up. He had to shout above the roar of the falls just to reach the giant's ears.

"You want my Zora flippers, do you? They don't come cheap. 500 rupees for one set they are."

"No, you already sold me a pair. Remember?"

The Zora King squinted down at Link, his slit pupils peering down into Link's face. "Oh, now I remember. The little guy. Fine then. What do you want?"

"We heard that you hear a lot of things through the waterways. I was-"

"We hear everything in the waterways. We're very knowledgeable about the lands of Hyrule."

"Right, and I was wondering if you'd heard anything about a fourth piece of the Triforce? We want to know if it exists."

"I have heard of such a thing," he nodded.

"You have?" Link said, astonished that someone believed him.

"Indeed, I have been much intrigued by the possibilities of its existence. The stories have been heard by few, but they reach deep in the underground. They began just as the moblins appeared, in fact."

"The moblins?" Link gasped.

"Are you serious?" said Mega Man.

"Do you mean they're connected?" Link asked.

"I heard they may, in fact, already be in possession of it," the king said slyly.

Link shook his head. "No, that's not possible."

"From what I hear, it is."

"It's a piece of the Triforce, the golden power. It's supposed to be the element of unity. They would have used it by now. It wouldn't just be sitting there. Surely it can't be inert."

"I'm just telling you what I heard," he said as he turned his nose away snootily.

"How are they connected? How did the moblins get the Triforce piece? What are they planning to do with it?"

"One question at a time, puny human. I know they are the minions of Ganondorf, a part of his army during the imprisoning war and lethal as any Hylian soldier. But Ganondorf was defeated, correct?"

"Of course," Link said.

"Then something is most strange here. But like any other army, they need a base to operate from. It seems that it would be close to where you would see the largest grouping of them."

"The lost woods!" Link exclaimed.

The Zora King nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

"But that's all the way across the kingdom!"

The fishy emperor sighed. "I suppose you can use this waterway, if you really need to get there right away."

A whirlpool spontaneously formed in front of the Zora King, in between the two rows of smaller guard Zoras.

"Thank you," Link said. He gestured to Mega Man to follow him.

"Is this safe?" he asked.

"Safe enough," he said as he dived in.

Mega Man sighed, "When in Rome... or Hyrule."

 **Next Chapter: Separation Anxiety**


	22. Separation Anxiety

_Woo-hoo!_ Link thought as he zipped through the darkened tunnel at breakneck speeds. His arms were clasped to his sides as he zoomed through the waterway like a bullet. Bubbles streamed past him.

Mega Man followed suit behind, flailing his arms, trying to correct his balance and poise so he would stop hitting the sides of the tunnel. The water velocity wasn't made for someone of his mass and density, so he kept bouncing off the bottom of the tunnel. He had tried rolling himself into a ball, but that didn't work so well. Now he was trying to arrange it so he could bounce off the floor with his feet, but not so much he would hit the ceiling. Keeping his yaw straight was the tricky part.

Link saw light coming towards him, the tunnel curving upwards towards it. He burst out of the vortex with a great splash and treaded away from it so Mega Man would have room to emerge. A clump of dirt rolled down the steep sides of the pond.

The blue robot jumped up out of the current... and then sank back down. Trying again to avoid the undertow he set power to his legs and erupted out of the water. He soared into the air, at least three feet above the pond and landed with a splash far away from the vortex.

Again finding himself on the sandy bottom of the pond, he looked up and saw Link's feet swishing back and forth keeping him afloat. Figuring he could cling onto the wall to prevent from sinking, he jumped so he would rise out and grab the sheer side of the pond. However, once he was out, he saw the wall was slippery with mud. Link watched him grab the side and begin slipping off, scrambling his arms, clawing at the rock to stay up, until he thought of the idea to punch his arm though the mud, creating a sort of hook for himself. It worked, Mega Man stayed waist high in the water, secured by his shoulder deep arm in the vertical shore of the pond.

"Well, that was fun," Link said.

Mega Man suppressed any comments he wanted to make about the roller coaster tunnel. "Now how are we gonna get out of here? The walls are too steep to climb."

"Observe." Link pulled out a device from his bag. It was a hollow cylindrical device with a spearhead on one end. "The hookshot." The hero put the hollow end onto his arm and pointed it up at a tree branch close to the pond. The spearhead shot off with a pressurized burst, a long chain attached to it. The spear embedded in the branch and Link flew away, the chain retracting into the device and pulling him along with it. He made it to the spearpoint and jumped down harmlessly onto solid ground.

"Pretty neat, huh?" he asked as he stood over the edge of the pool. He tossed the hookshot down to him and the robot grabbed it in mid-air. "Just put it over your hand. You should feel something like a handle for you to grip onto. And then just aim and pull the trigger."

Mega Man maneuvered his fingers around the cannon so he could slip the device on without releasing his grip on the wall. His arm barely fit into the hole, the metal armor scraped against the metal of the tool. His hand met the handle and he gripped onto it, feeling with his index finger for a trigger. He found it and outstretched his arm to the same tree branch Link had hit. He pulled the trigger and the grappling chain shot out just as it did before. Mega Man thought the device had to work on a spring-pressurized mechanism that gave a tremendous amount of torque and energy. Quite an amazing device really. The hookshot rooted into the wood and sat there. Mega Man waited for the apparatus to start reeling him in.

"You have to let go of the trigger," Link called out.

 _Well, he didn't say that,_ Mega Man thought, using his precise thought-process of line-by-line instructions. He pulled his muddy arm out from the wall and jumped off.

And sank into the water. The chain spun out more slack to compensate for the user's weight as he sank down again to the bottom. Mega Man thought about how much he was really beginning to hate water as bubbles floated up past his eyes. Still holding onto the hookshot he tried jumping up to lessen the drag on the line. The chain slowly started taking up slack as the pull of the line propelled him close to the wall. Mega Man stuck out his feet and stood on the muddy terrain. Jumping again, he let the hookshot pull him in a little bit more. Now he was doing a sort of reverse-repelling, letting the chain reel him in like a fish. At the surface of the water, Mega Man did a power jump and broke the surface of the water. Climbing up the chain with his free hand as far as he could in the short amount of time it took for the line to swing back over the pond and towards the wall again, he just made it to dry land. Mega Man yanked the spear down from the tree to loosen it and it spun up back into the hookshot.

"Easy as pie," he said, with a slight tone of sarcasm as he handed the hookshot back to Link.

"You must weigh too much," Link said as he replaced his item.

"Obviously."

"Come on, let's go." Link gestured to Mega Man and the two began walking into the nearby forest. The shadowy canopy of the trees obscured the light of day. Small woodland creatures skittered back and forth.

"This is about where I found you," Link said.

Mega Man realized this was true. In a moment of wishful thinking he opened up a comm-link to Roll. Perhaps some cosmic scientific force had allowed a glimmer of the portal to be open for transmission waves. All he received was a communication error. Nonetheless, it was worth a try. As he looked around with his sub-sensors, he couldn't even detect a trace of the portal. Only the bio-rhythms of the trees and animals registered on his scanners. Another ray of hope shot down.

"If I was a moblin base, I would probably be underground," Link muttered. "Some of these tree stumps are hollowed out hiding places, left over from thieves. There's got to be one around here."

"Makes sense," Mega Man said.

"Wait, stop. Do you hear that?" Link said.

Mega Man attuned his aural sensors and picked up repeated noise. He ran through his databanks and tried to match the sound to any similar noises.

"Sounds like... fluttering wings. Thirty feet behind us... and closing," he said.

"Wings... from crows!" he exclaimed as he looked behind and pointed up.

A great flock of monstrously big crows soared out of the tree branches, heading in a scarily organized formation down towards the two. Their sharp talons and beaks flexed in preparation.

"Run!" Link commanded. No way could he fight all those crows. Mega Man followed behind him. He twisted back with his arm cannon and fired backwards into the flock. Most of his plasma shots flew in-between the speedy birds. One hit a blackbird who vaporized in an outline of light.

They continued running between the trees, blocked off by a grove too thick to jump into. The birds began closing in. Mega Man kept turning back and firing his Mega Buster at the birds, trying to thin their numbers down more.

As he turned back, his next step met with nothing but air and he fell forward into a dark pit. "Whoa-" he exclaimed as he went over the ledge, wishing he had watched where he was going. He tried to grip onto the ground, but the dry earth crumbled in his fingers.

"Liiiiink!" he yelled out as he tumbled down into the pit.

* * *

Roll pulled off a sheet metal panel that had been leaning on the wall next to the horizontal capsule. Finally, she found Rush. He had been where she thought. Safe and sound in his maintenance pod. It was his programmed destination when he had lost Mega Man and could not fulfill his orders. Rush stood on all four paws with his eyes closed, locked in standby mode. The capsule was inactive, meaning Rush was essentially just sitting there. Typing into the console attached to the capsule, she overrode the lock and unplugged him from the system. The screen displayed several status-checking lines and gave the OK. The capsule's green tinted hood slid back with a hiss of pneumatic steam. Rush blinked his eyes open and looked around. Finding Roll, he began panting happily.  
"Hiya, Rush. Why don't you get out of there?"

Rush stepped out of his capsule and onto the floor, his metal claws clicking on the floor.

"Come on boy," Roll said. "Come on over here." Roll waved her hand to him, looking behind. Rush traipsed along the floor behind her. "We're gonna hook you up to a data log. Won't that be fun, boy?"

"Woof!" Rush barked, knowing a question was asked, but not being able to comprehend its meaning. It was not in his command list so he responded with his default comeback.

Roll typed some commands into a different computer in the room. The screen displayed a smooth GUI interface. She took a cord lying on the panel and hooked one end into the console's input panel. She bent down to Rush and started petting him. "Good boy. This won't hurt a bit."

Her petting was actually pulling back the access panel on his head, covered by an arc of armor acting as something of a helmet. Only Mega Man was capable of interacting with Rush, her interface was not compatible, so this was the only way to access his internal systems. Various ports were wired into this flat section of his CPU. She jacked the cord into one of them and turned back to the video screen. Rush blissfully sat there, either uncaring or unknowing of what was going on.

Roll fired up the program and began downloading Rush's data logs into the central database. At first glance, there was nothing indicative in them. She opted to playback the video recording section.

The main video screen up above the console lit up as video feed began streaming in. The viewpoint was from Rush's eyes, so everything was very close to the ground. She fast-forwarded to the point where Wily made the attack and her and Rock separated. Rush followed Mega Man's battle with Wily's armored tank and the subsequent robot masters. She followed along with the data command log time indices as the action on the screen continued. Rush transformed into jet mode and began zooming around the room for a while, as Mega Man fought the robot masters. Apparently they had some sort of shielding preventing Mega Man's shots from getting through. Then the view shifted around to sailing down a hallway. Mega Man shut the emergency door on Elec Man, and absorbed his power. That had to be the broken robot arm she found in the transporter room.

Mega Man told Rush to leave him at this point. Rush teleported away and landed in another room in the laboratory, one far away from Mega Man. He sat there on the floor, waiting for a call command, but it never came. According to the log, he lost connection to Mega Man shortly afterward. Attempts to reconnect were met with failure, so Rush began walking towards his capsule. Once inside, the automated system came to life, attaching its recharge wires through the floor and the pale-green lid coming down over Rush's eyes.

Once again, a clue to the mystery of Mega Man's disappearance led nowhere. He could have been captured, destroyed, or used the portal. She grimaced in anger at having another dead end and the incapability to look for her brother. She was starting to feel very helpless, coupled with the irony that she was now so much more powerful than she had been.

However, the next step was to find out the significance of Dr. Selkirk's vase. Since she had already scoured the photo archives of Dr. Light and what Dr. Cossack had sent her, she had plenty of material to work with. She brought up the hi-res image she had scanned into the file system earlier, the same one she had sent to Dr. Cossack, and looked at it in the large-screen monitor. Fortunately, with all these materials, she would be able to extrapolate a full 3-D image of the vase.

She zoomed into the section of the image with the vase and sharpened it to unfettered clarity. She told the computer to extract all elements but the vase out of the pictures. Then using all she knew about graphical enhancement, she used the tools of the program to judge based on height, width, light density, shadows, resolution errors, proofing, refraction, and depth perception, along with several lens constitutes to try and resolve a clear, full picture of the vase. The system began processing the data entered, displaying a status bar as it calculated along. Hopefully, this would yield a full picture of the vase, based on the obscure image in the background. The computer finished and showed several cross section images of the sides, top and bottom of the vase. Roll inspected it and was pleased with the results. Inputting a few more commands, she used the modeling algorithm to construct a fully 3-D model of the vase she could look at.

Roll played with the coordinates, rotating the 3-D vase around, looking at its pattern. There were three lines at the top rim and three down by the base. Unlike other vases, the middle pattern did not consist of pictures or symbols. This one was covered with horizontal jagged, zig-zag lines, none of them symmetrical. Very unusual for a decorative vase. Roll zoomed into the top and tried to follow one of the lines and discovered that the lines were, in fact, one continuous strand that spiraled down the length of the vase. The space between the lines and actual width of them made it seem like they were separated. Now that she knew this, she tried to look at the pattern in the lines, trying to see if they yielded some sort of mathematical meaning. All the zig-zags were made of the same length, so there was no information found in that aspect of the segments.

Roll tilted her head and thought about something. The design of the lines seemed to harken back to something she had learned some time ago. Pulling up the Hypernet access she called upon the referrer and put in the beginning snippet of the line segment to cross-reference. The program executed its commands and came up with several results. She scrolled through, looking for anything that might click as to the connection between the lines and something of value...

And found it. The graphic she sent in matched what was called a binary pulse pattern. It was used during the early days of computing to represent the electrical patterns of a computer network communication across old-style transmission lines.

In other words, the line was a binary number.

Binary was so archaic it was no wonder she had missed it initially. Computer code made of ones and zeroes, it was used back when computers mostly consisted of transistors, now replaced by revolutionary new computing components that allowed logarithmic increases in advancement. The meaning was not lost on Roll however. It meant that something of Dr. Selkirk's used that binary pattern. Dr. Wily had to have wanted the vase for that reason. What that reason was escaped her at the moment, though. However, she knew that it had something to do with Dr. Selkirk's work, some crucial piece, something that probably had no business in Dr. Wily's hands. One madman's work connecting with another's - a scary thought.

 **Next Chapter: Dungeons**


	23. Dungeons

Mega Man found himself lying on his back, deep within a realm of darkness. The high fall had disoriented his sensors and he recalibrated them as he stood back up with a groan. The light was coming down from the opening where he had fallen, casting him in a peculiar natural spotlight.

Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs he called out, "Link? Link!" He waited a bit. "Are you there? Link?"

No answer. Something may have happened to him. Perhaps the crows nabbed him. Or he could have been able to fend them off. Nonetheless, Link wasn't there. Mega Man was somewhere under the lost woods and he had to get out of there. Jumping out of the pit wasn't an option, much too high. He had no rope to climb out and no way of making a ladder either. He had experience in situations like this before and there was always some alternate path. He felt around the walls, using infra-red vision to navigate around the chasm. His sensors picked up an unusual outcropping of dirt and roots. He touched the projection and it gave way, falling inward. A door opened up for him and he eagerly passed through it.

He now found himself in the middle of a man-made corridor, made from tile and brick. Torches lined the walls at regular intervals. Archeological designs were inked on the walls, apparently made with no special meaning in mind. There were two paths for him to take, east and west. Both ends tapered down to darkness. Neither way appeared better than the other. He needed to find the one that would lead him back above ground.

An abrupt squeaking sound alerted him. It was similar to a rodent from his world, but much deeper and larger. He set his arm cannon ready just in case.

Sets of glowing red eyes blinked open in the darkness above. Bats.

The eyes flipped over and began flying at him, shrieking like demons from hell. They were twice the size of normal bats, with fangs and hooked wings. They swooped in and began fluttering around Mega Man's face, picking at his metallic shell, at the synthetic skin on his face. The robot flailed his arms, trying to keep them away, not wanting to hurt the innocent animals outright.

"Ackk, get away, get away," he shouted. The bats continued their assault. Mega Man opted for an easier route and scurried down the hall to the right, his vision partially obscured by the leathery wings beating down on him. He shut them to protect his eyes and held out his hand in front of him before he ran into something. Out of a brief blink, he saw a door just ahead. He put his legs to maximum output and began outrunning the bats. As soon as he opened the door he curved around smoothly and shut it just as the bats caught up. He could hear the soft impact as the rodents hit the door, scratching, trying to win their prey. Mega Man relaxed and turned around.

Unfortunately, it appeared that he just ran into a dead end. This unusual room was walled in with gray-green brick. There were four armored statues, two on the east wall, two on the west, and a wide full-length mirror at the end of the room, in which Mega Man could see his semblance. The robot looked around for an alternative means of escape as he moved forward. Moving back out the door probably wasn't too safe - those bats were voracious. They would be ready to strike as soon as he walked out the door. Of course, if there was no way out in here, that could pose a problem. He could dig out, maybe, depending on the strength of the brick. Or he could go back and face the bats, maybe engineer some sort of strategy so they weren't all on him at once.

Mega Man noticed behind the mirror there was a large painting hanging on the wall, stretching to the ground, almost like a mural. In it was some sort of round, cowled creature with yellow eyes and four hands, each holding a torch, spread out like a star. Each of the torches had a different colored flame - red, blue, green, and yellow.

Something set Mega Man's bewilderment off. This was obviously not a conducive environment to be displaying valuable art. Plus the picture's aesthetic value was nil, at best. Something about this room wasn't clicking with him. The knight armor's, the mirror, the painting. Something was really screwy about this.

Mega Man trodded back in front of the painting and gazed at his reflection. Maybe there was some sort of answer in here. But what was the question. The question was how to get out of here. This room offered something in that way, either some sort of passageway or something else. It would have to be something valuable or else it wouldn't be encoded like this.

Encoded. That was it. The problem wasn't to find an answer, it was to find a solution. The materials he needed were in this room, he had but to activate them the right way. And the key was in the painting. Mega Man turned around to the knight statues. They were holding their cupped hands out as if they were holding something... or waiting to hold something. He turned back to the mirror. If he stood just right, the angle of the mirror and the placement of the statues' hands would show whatever the knights were holding in roughly the same position as it would in the painting. But where would he find torches?

There were some out in the hall, but they didn't match up with what the creature in the art piece was holding, and neither were they colored. Mega Man inspected the mirror. It was framed in gold or brass casing with a small skull-head emblazoned at the top. It looked like it belonged in some swashbuckler's quarters. It was also in the same dimensions as the painting, further proving his hypothesis. But how would he get the tools to solve the puzzle?

He looked around the back and saw four torches in place-holders, unlit and ready for use. Excellent. Mega Man took one and placed it in the hands of the nearest knight. Now he had to figure out how to light it, though. He had no fire weapons, that would have come in handy now. Nor anything to strike a flame to. Mega Man could see how this puzzle was meant for the people of this time. They would have elements for making fire with them nearly all day, especially adventurers like Link.

A plasma shot might generate enough heat. It might also disintegrate the torch. It was a risky maneuver, but he was seeing fewer and fewer choices, short of opening up his heating coil. He would have to aim his arm cannon just above the wick so the shot would just graze it. Plasma was highly volatile and hard to control in its state, much like fire. Mega Man did the appropriate calculations, held out the torch and his arm cannon at the precise number of degrees he thought it needed and fired. The shot flew in the air, singing the torch and hitting harmlessly against the wall, leaving a scorch mark. The torch, after a spark, lit a brilliant purple. Success! Mega Man put the torch into the knight's waiting hands and grabbed the other torches.

Obviously since there was already a burning flame, there was no need to repeat the experiment. He held each of them to the lit torch and they each ignited into luminescent red, yellow, and blue respectively. Mega Man couldn't find any reason why the similar torches would be burning different, and such unusual colors, but now was not the time to find out. With the torches in place, each knight holding one, he stood in front of the mirror.

There were four torches in place, one in each corner of the mirror, burning brightly. But nothing was happening. Mega Man checked back at the painting. Maybe the colors needed to correspond with where they were in the creature's hands. He went to work replacing the torches, switching them around until they matched what was in the picture. When he was finished he stood in front of the mirror again. Nothing was happening.

This was strange. Maybe he was going about this wrong, using the wrong logic. Whoever built this room was from a world where they didn't think like he thought. All Mega Man could do was process the problem logically and find a best solution. And he thought he had. The torches were exactly parallel to the creature, in the same order. They looked like that was where they should go. The picture should have been a mirror image.

No, not a mirror image. That was the problem. He was looking at the painting in the mirror. But if the picture was reflecting in the mirror, the image would be reversed. Mega Man switched the torches from one side of the room to the other, setting the torches to what they would be if the creature were holding them in front of the mirror itself. As he placed the last torch in the knight's hands he heard a click.

He turned to the mirror, thinking something had unlocked. Within the reflection, the ghostly figure from the painting was holding up the four torches. But this was real... and floating behind Mega Man.

The robot quickly turned his head to look at it, but the ghost was not behind him, not outside the mirror. He turned back to the reflective pane. The mirror had vanished, disappearing with vaporizing puffs of smoke. In its place a small treasure chest remained. The painting itself somehow spontaneously unhinged from the wall and fell face forward, revealing a door.

A little off-put by the strange encounter, he approached the treasure chest and took a look inside. There was a shiny silver metal key lying in the bottom. Just in case, Mega Man took it, not really knowing why he would need it, but thinking it would be best. Certainly wouldn't want to be kept out of a locked door by a key he had the opportunity to get before. Pocketing the object, he opened the door and continued on.

* * *

Link hunkered down in the tree trunk as the birds passed overhead. They apparently didn't see him duck in here so he kept silent until he was sure they had passed. His eyes were kept skyward, looking for an indication of the birds. The trunk was damp and cold, keeping him shrouded in shadow. He thought he should have felt cowardly, but his self-preservation instincts justified his actions. The sound of wings flapping and their calls eventually faded away. He knew Mega Man hadn't made it as far as him and was wondering where he had gone, hopefully not attacked by the crows.  
The green-clad hero emerged from the trunk and looked around. The birds had flown away and sky had become cloudy, darkening the forest.

"Mega Man?" he called out quietly. He began retracing his steps back to where they had entered. "Mega Man? Where are you? Are you here?"

Walking back down the forest, he tried to remember where he had stepped, what path he had taken when running from the crows, difficult to do in a panic. He found a pit in-between two trees that he had gone around before, wondering whether Mega Man had done the same. Part of the grass on the ledge had been ripped off, indicating that someone had fallen down and tried to grab the edge. Link feared for the worst.

"Mega Man! Mega Man! Are you down there?" he called out.

The pit was too far down for him to jump safely. He had no rope to climb down with either. Link wondered if Mega Man could even survive a fall down that far. He could be lying down there right now, unconscious, bleeding, or dead. Maybe he could use his hookshot to repel down there, but the mechanism didn't work that way. Kakariko village was nearby. Maybe he could get some help there.

"Why if it isn't Sir Link," a voice said.

Link turned around and saw an old woman walking towards him. The same old woman he had taken shelter from earlier. She was still dressed in a tattered gray robe and carried a pile of firewood.

"Hello again,"

"You gave me such a start after you had left. I was wondering what had happened to you, perhaps the moblins had come to capture you."

"No, I had a rather important dream I thought I should follow up."

"Next time, you should really wait until morning before heading out on a whim like that. I had planned on giving you a hero's surprise when you woke up."

"Oh? What was that?"

"Oh, a big breakfast. One worthy of someone such as yourself." The old lady strutted up next to Link and peered down into the hole. "Lose something down there?" she asked.

"Possibly. I need to get down there in a hurry. A friend of mine might be down there."

"Oh, really. Then if you'll allow me to repay the kindness you showed me..." She put down her firewood and stepped behind the tree, pulling out a long ladder behind it. "I've hidden this here to get down myself."

"What do you use it for?"

"Oh, for storing things, treasures, the little money I have. You never know when thieves will come back. They might still be hiding behind the trees, ramming you and snatching what they can."

Link nodded in agreement. He helped the woman by taking the other end of the ladder and lowering it down into the hole. Just as they were about to run out of ladder it hit bottom. Link immediately started climbing down, and the old lady followed him.

At the dirt bottom, Link jumped off the ladder. No sign of Mega Man anywhere, however there was a doorway opened up. He cautiously cantered in and found himself in the middle of a temple hallway. Strange that this would be under the lost woods. The old lady snuck out from behind him.

"Looks like your friend got away," she said.

Link looked back and forth at the two ends of the hallway. "Yeah, but which way did he go?"

The woman stooped close to the ground. "The footprints seem to indicate he went that way," she sped off with her nose practically rubbing the floor.

Link looked down and didn't notice any footprints. However, the lady was already running off in an easterly direction. "Hey, wait," he called out. He began running after her.

He followed her down the corridor at a fast jog. She was surprisingly fast for an old woman. She stopped at a door as Link caught up with her.

"He must have gone in here," she said. "Open it."

Link opened the door and walked in. It was a large room with four pillars standing around a colored tile.

"Where is he?" Link said as he entered the room.

"Hmm, he must have gone in the secret entrance."

"There's a secret entrance?" Link asked as he stepped into the room, looking around.

"Yes," she said, still poised near the door. "Try hitting that tile in the center of the room."

Link looked back at her, standing next to the slightly red raised tile in the middle of the pillars.

"This one?" he asked.

"Yes, that one, press it."

Link stomped his foot on the tile. The four pillars began regressing into the floor, making the horrible grating noise of stone scraping against stone. Link could see the tops about to reach floor level and noticed they were holding some sort of object on them. As they reached eye level he realized they were red Cyclops statues. He whipped around to the old woman, who was standing in the doorway.

"Ha, ha, ha. Remember, Link, no good deed goes unpunished."

As soon as the pillars finished going down the Cyclops' slowly opened their eyes as Link's head darted around frightened.

"Goodbye, Link," she said. "Spill lots of blood for me now." She shut the door and locked it.

The cyclops' eyes opened wide. They began charging Link.

 **Next Chapter: Karma**


	24. Karma

Mega Man closed the door on another room, having finished another puzzle. It was taking all his ingenuity to make it through this dungeon, needing to see ahead, solving problems, navigating thorough unusual hallways and rooms fraught with perils and traps. Only the keen mind could take this temple, only a courageous mind would try.

And still he hadn't been able to find the decent exit. Surely there had to be a way out of this forsaken place. The purpose behind all these traps and pitfalls was meant to lead somewhere. Something of value was at the other end of the dungeon. Mega Man just hoped it was the door.

This room was just a simple hallway leading to another door at the end of it. For some reason, Mega Man sensed something ominous beyond the door. Of course, for a robot to have an intuitive sense was ludicrous, but somehow Mega Man felt it, maybe because of all the small hallways that led to robot masters, it was just an established sense of foreboding in his recognized patterns.

It was, however, the only way to go from here. So he proceeded to the door and tried to open it. Unusually, it was locked. The door had a keyhole though, meaning it could be unlocked. Mega Man took out the key he had snatched earlier from the treasure box and inserted it into the hole, thankful he was observant enough to notice it before. The key fit and he opened the door. He entered the room, looking around. There were actually tables and chairs in here and... moblins.

A ton of moblins.

* * *

The four gaping wide eyes of the cyclops' closed in on Link.

"Guys, can't we just talk about this?"

The monsters continued approaching him.

"No? Guess we have trouble seeing eye to eye!"

Mustering his strength he flipped backward over one and spun around, striking it with his sword. The sword clanged loudly against the rock hard covering as Link cursed his stupidity. The surface armor would be invulnerable to any of his weapons. One of the cyclops slowly rolled over, knocking the sword out of the way and punched him in the chest, bashing him across the room. Link grunted as he fell against the stone as two of the fiends lowered their heads and charged him. Link opened his eyes in surprise and dived out as they butted heads with the wall.

"You guys mean business," he said to the tough opponents. Another monster approached him and swung his arm down in a chop. Link dodged out of the way and swiped his sword along his midriff, creating an eerie scraping sound. It had no effect on the rock monster who continued thrusting his fists out at him. Link tried to stab his sword into the eye - the vulnerable point - as quick as he could before the others could gang up on him. But the statue blocked every thrust Link tried to make with its stone arms, not even scratching the surface. Link had never fought an enemy so adept at battling, it was beginning to wear him out.

"Just... let me..." Link grunted as he parried with the cyclops, being methodically pushed backwards by his advances. Finally, the monster grabbed the blade with his bare hand as Link stopped stunned by the quickness of it. It looked at the blade oddly for a second, then yanked it out of Link's hands, throwing it far from Link's reach.

Link scrambled away from the monster and dug in his backpack for something else to use. Bottles, no. Magic powder, no. Lantern, no. Magic rods, no, he had used up all his magic. Dammit, why was all his useless stuff on top. He truly needed a bow and arrow to defeat them properly. Or some ranged weapon would do. He finally found the boomerang and grasped in his hand. Backed up to a raise on the wall he threw it at the nearest cyclops, hitting him square in the eye. The monster grunted softly and flailed his arms in the air. His large eyelid furrowed and he came sadistically closer to the hero. He tried chucking it at another one, who stopped for a second and then kept his pace. It was doing nothing but angering them.

Link frantically searched in his backpack, looking for anything else that would help him. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flying fist coming at him. He narrowly dodged it just as it hit the wall, creating spider-cracks. Link tried running down the wall, but another fist smacked the wall right in front of him. Link had his back to the wall as the cyclops began closing in.

Suddenly the wall across the room burst open in a cloud of dust and debris spilled out. Everyone turned to see what had happened, why the wall collapsed spontaneously.

An unseen pair of hands holding a bow and nocked arrow rose up from the dust. The arrow released and flew through the air into one of the cyclops' eye. It groaned loudly as it tried to pull out the arrow embedded in his huge orb. The hands rapidly fired more arrows, each one aimed true and hit true. Link took the chance to roll away and grab his idle sword while the monsters tried to regroup. He shuffled over to the cloud of dust and saw Zelda emerge from the cloud.

"Zelda!" he exclaimed.

"Surprised?" she said with a smile. She turned to the monsters and pulled out four more arrows from the quiver on her back. "Here's looking at you, kid."

She switched her grip on the bow to horizontal and fired. The four arrows hit the cyclops at the same time, knocking them over and defeating them in a puff of smoke.

"Boy, am I glad to see you," Link said. "How in the world did you find me?"

"Fairies like to gossip, did you ever notice that?" she smiled.

"They never said much to me," Link said.

"They told me you went to the magic shop, so I went there, and the fairies there told me you jumped in the river, so then I went to the Zora domain and the fairies there told me you jumped in the waterway to the lost woods, so I came here and the fairies said you jumped down a pit. I swear they must have some sort of news network," she said as she shook her head.

"Wow, nice timing. Please tell me you have a magic potion. I'm out."

Zelda fetched a bottle from her bag and handed it to him. He began to drink the green liquid eagerly.

"Noktwor is dead," she stated simply.

"What?" he said as he wiped his mouth.

"We found him in the basement. He was having a secret meeting with some members of the thieves guild and a man in black. We bet that's who he was working for."

"The man in black?"

She nodded, "I think he could have been a sorcerer or something, I felt a very evil aura from him, but I didn't get to look at his face."

"He's probably the one who tried to kill me in the middle of the night."

Zelda nodded. "That's why I had to find you as soon as I could."

"Well, I think they've also got another member. That old woman who gave me shelter just betrayed me, locked me in this room with the monsters to kill me. She said to try and spill as much blood as I could."

"You can't trust anyone these days. Where's Mega Man?"

"Mega Man!" Link exclaimed, suddenly feeling stupid for forgetting his friend. "We've got to find him. He's down here somewhere, he's probably lost, if he hasn't already fallen in a trap. Come on!"

* * *

"Eep," Mega Man uttered.

The moblins roared in battle rage and picked up their arms - spears, swords, clubs, maces, and whatever else was lying around, including chairs. There had to be more than fifty moblins running at him right now. Mega Man took up his Mega Buster and fired a plasma shot at the closest one. He disappeared as the blast shot through him.

He continued blasting the moblins one by one as they came towards him. In the back, a moblin soldier stood on a pedestal, holding a flat pink crystal in one hand and waving his other hand over it while mumbling some sort of incantation. With a shout, he threw the crystal over the crowd of moblins scattered throughout the room. The crystal exploded in a shower of pink sparkles, falling like a slow rain of stars over the crowd. The moblins stopped attacking and waited for the shower to envelop them completely, looking up as if suddenly distracted by the shiny objects. Mega Man ceased as well, wondering what sort of strange effect this was.

Suddenly, the moblins roared again and restarted their assault. Mega Man fired a double shot at a moblin with a club, but the plasma bullets absorbed into a glowing shell that suddenly popped up around him, distributing away as tendrils of lightning.

"Oh no," Mega Man said. He started charging up his shot, wishing his charge would go faster. One of the monsters plowed up the steps in the midst of this. Mega Man kicked him in the head with his large boot, knocking him backwards into the crowd. Apparently, the shields only blocked his plasma shots. He released the charged blast on the fallen moblin. The energy fizzled out on the shield with no effect.

"Where did you guys get these things?"

Two moblins charged Mega Man with swords. Mega Man held up his hands and caught them in the air. Jumping up he kicked both of them in the stomach, propelling them backwards. The end result was Mega Man falling on his back, hitting the edge of the stair harshly.

Opening his eyes from his fall, he saw an axe swinging down from above on his face. He quick rolled to the side just as the blade hit stone. Spinning upright, he stepped back

"Let's try this, then." Mega Man accessed his inventory and switched weapons to the Thunder Beam. His color washed from blue to green-gray. He fired the cannon and a massive wave of electricity shot out in multiple directions. The moblins recoiled from the blows, some were knocked out by direct hits, others endured the hit and kept coming. Mega Man darted his buster back and forth, rapidly firing shots of the Thunder Beam at the enemies, barely keeping them off his toes.

"Arrgh, why won't you die?" He said as he fired point blank range at the moblins. Some of the weaker ones began vaporizing as they were supposed to when defeated. Finally, their shields were starting to lose energy from the powerful blast.

Mega Man fired shot after shot. Suddenly, nothing. He tried again. Nothing came out of his arm cannon. He had run out of energy for his Thunder Beam. The color of his armor automatically switched back to normal blue, as the moblins realized he had stopped firing. Mega Man's only recourse was hand-to-hand combat, something he was not programmed for. His entire life he had spent fighting with his arm cannon, firing energy blasts as the robots did. His back was to the corner though, and desperate times called for trying to remember all the martial arts he had seen in his life.

He stepped back and assumed a battle stance. "All right, you wanna fight. Let's fight," he said as he held up his hands in a boxer stance.

The moblins came at him in a circle, jangling their metal weapons. He started by side-kicking the moblin nearest him in the gut. The monster fell backwards as Mega Man advanced forward and rapidly punched one to his left in the face with a series of quick jabs. A flail swung around him from behind, wrapping around his neck, the spiked ball bashing against his helmet. Mega Man held onto the chain clasped around his neck as he was lifted off the ground by the beast. Using his strength, the robot broke the chain, and stomped on the beasts foot. He howled in pain as Mega Man elbowed him in the stomach and flipped his massive girth over his shoulder. He tumbled into the crowd of moblins, knocking some of them back.

From his side, a monster jabbed forward with his sword, slicing across Mega Man's belly. Mega Man's eyes burst open in shock, time seemed to freeze for an instant. His armor had never been penetrated before, the spell must have made their weapons harder as well. Fortunately the injury had only scratched the surface of his protective covering, causing only a scar.

Mega Man spun around and roundhouse kicked the offending moblin square in the jaw. The disorientation from the hit encouraged the moblins to become more aggressive. A gigantic spiked club came down on him. He moved to the side, but the bludgeon succeeded in hitting his right shoulder, causing a massive jostling of his internal servos. A red warning flashed in his head, telling him the processing power flow to his arm shot down to 25. Mega Man noticed this as he tried to block away an incoming spear, his left hand succeeded in knocking it away, while the right was trying to catch up.

A moblin took advantage of his exposed body and sliced his halberd clean through his backside. Frayed metal edges splayed outward as the sparks of friction flew. Mega Man arched his back in pain as he felt wires severed and chips damaged. Systems rerouted to try and compensate for the damage, but he was never meant to have to deal with internal physical injuries. His central CPU began showing massive errors and his body had enough trouble trying to correct them and keep normal tasks going, let alone trying to defend himself. Mega Man fell to his knees and suddenly felt very tired.

The end had come sooner than he expected.

 **Next Chapter: Man Down**


	25. Man Down

Zelda and Link found the door down a short hallway. "He had to have gone in there," Link said. "He made it this far."

Both of them were hoping against hope that Mega Man hadn't taken some obscure hidden path and ended up in the bowels of the dungeon, nor had they missed his broken body in a bottomless pit. The path down the hall led them in a straight line down to this small corridor. Link and Zelda rushed down the hallway, ready to burst open the door. Link grabbed the doorknob and pushed it inward.

"It's locked!" he exclaimed with a quiver in his voice. "You didn't pick up a key when you were in here, did you?"

"No," Zelda said.

Link began slamming his shoulder against the door, trying to use brute force to open it, a tactic that never worked, but still had to be tried.

"I've got something better though," she said and pulled out a bomb from her pack.

"That won't work. The door is metal," Link said dejectedly.

"It won't work on the door. It will work on the doorknob." She took out some rope as well and started tying the blue orb to the doorknob. It hung just under the handle, the wick grazing against it. Zelda loped back down the hallway as Link followed close behind. Once she had reached midway she pulled out her bow and arrow and shot the wick. The string became alight with fire and burned quickly down.

"Cover your ears," Zelda said as she turned away.

A massive explosion rocked the hallway. Smoke billowed down the passageway in great puffs. Link turned back and saw the doorknob had been blown to smithereens.

"Precise explosive targeting," Zelda said. "Let's go."

Link rushed ahead with a scream and kicked the door down. It fell easily inward as Link landed on the set of stairs. He saw a considerable collection of moblins circled around something in the corner.

"Zelda!" Link called out.

"Got it," she said, and started pulling out arrows and firing them rapidly. The moblins disbanded and started after the two as Link dived in and rushed the crowd with his sword. He screamed a primal battle cry and began slicing through beasts left and right. He blocked their weapons coming at him easily and spun around in a circle, blowing charged magic energy out in a wave. The moblins were shifted back as Link continued his ferocious assault. Zelda continued giving backup as moblins surrounded Link. The power of the sword and arrow kept them at bay.

"That's right, get closer, you monsters. Have some of THIS!" The light in the room seemed to darken as Link stretched his sword to the sky. A thick column of lightning streamed out of the blade. Link screamed as he spun around and around, shooting the lightning out like spider legs, blowing the moblins back, vaporizing many of them. The sheer power of the lightning was enough to blow through their defenses and reach even those in the back.

Their numbers diminished, the moblins scattered and flew out of the room by the back door. Link fell to one knee as Zelda covered him with her bow and moved to his side.

"All you all right?" she said.

"Good thing you gave me that potion," he responded. He turned and saw what the moblins had been gathered around.

Mega Man lay there down on the ground, his head tilted to the side, as if he was all tuckered out. His armor contained numerous scratches and indentations, torn apart in some places. Link and Zelda approached him, looking down on him like parents over a sleeping child.

Mega Man opened his eyes and looked up at his cohorts. "ErroR... LiNK... Need... helP..."

Link looked at Mega Man's wounds. "What... what..." He moved closer to Mega Man's body. The weapons had penetrated his armor, but what was inside didn't make sense to him. The metal had been torn outward, so he should have been able to see skin or blood, but instead there were abundant pieces of metal and green boards with thousands of smaller pieces on them. Metal rods and gears filled his body. His armor was a hollow shell, filled with these parts.

"What... is this? Zelda, look," he gestured to her. She came over and looked at the same thing Link was seeing.

"I don't know," she said. "Link..."

"I... It's not a wound... it's... what is it?"

"Link, we can't worry about that now. He needs our help. Let's get him back to the palace."

"I can see right through him."

"Come on," she prodded. She started by picking up his feet and hoping Link would follow suit.

Link looked sadly at Mega Man's fallen silent body for a second and picked up Mega Man's shoulders. They began carrying him out of the hall.

* * *

It had been nearly half an hour now. Link nervously paced around the hallway like an expectant father. Mega Man was in the room on the other side of the closed door, where all the wizards, fortune-tellers, and doctors of the castle were huddled around him, trying to diagnose his illness. The finest minds in the castle were working on him now. That should have set his mind at ease, but despite all he'd tried, he felt responsible for Mega Man's well-being  
Thoughts raced through his mind at galloping speeds. The reality had finally hit him. All his unusual behavior wasn't just the result of a different world, it was the result of a different form of life. What he had seen defied all explanation. Even magic couldn't be used as an excuse, because Mega Man was not magical. Somewhere along the lines, Link had just stopped seeing him as a stranger and started seeing him as a fellow hero.

Zelda came down the hall and saw Link. She bit her lip tensely. "You're still here?" she said. "You should go wash up. Dress your wounds."

"I'm not going anywhere until they tell me what happened and how it could be fixed."

"Link, there's nothing you can do about it now. We just have to trust them in there that they can come up with a solution. Standing out here worrying about it isn't going to change anything." She put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

Link sighed and turned away. Zelda kept her hand on him. "All along I thought he was just another human with really good metal armor. I thought maybe he had some sort of magic in it that allowed him to do those sorts of things. I came up with every excuse in my head of why he didn't do the things that normal people did. Now I find out he really can't do any of those things - he can't eat, he can't breathe. Why did I just ignore all the signs?"

"I don't know. He isn't like anything we've ever seen before. You couldn't really know what he was, you had to try and interpret it the best you could."

"He did all these things that weren't human. He had an arm that shot... lightning pellets. I don't even know what they were. Energy or something. There's so much I really don't know. And he's been by my side for so long. How could I not know any of this by now?"

"You weren't the only one. We all selectively heard what he was trying to tell us. None of us knew what he was talking about half the time. The things he said were so unusual we just chalked it up to his bizarre origins. One look at his clothes and you just knew he was different. Being a... a robot was natural to him, he never saw a need to volunteer the information. Coming through a portal in the middle of the woods gives you a little leeway to act a certain way."

"No, we were just too ignorant. Mega Man was right. Everyone here just looks out for themselves and themselves only. We only care about survival and profit. None of us are trying to better ourselves or our land. We've just fallen into a rut. Everyone thinks the status quo is great, so no one is trying to get anything better. If we were more advanced we could save him."

"We don't know if he can't be saved yet. Don't talk about him like he's in the grave."

"We don't even know if he goes to a grave! What the hell is he, Zelda? How do we fix him? Potions won't work, fairies won't work. He doesn't have organs to be repaired. He doesn't have a soul. I want to save him, but who would have the slightest idea how? It's like a monkey trying to build a house." Link threw up his hands. "I don't even know if he can die. What if he's locked in that state forever, with that jittery speech and his body all banged up. What if he stays that way forever like a retarded child? What are we supposed to do then?"

"Link, calm down. Please. We're going to do all we can for him, but you're not doing any good, you're making us all nervous. We're looking to your for guidance. You're the one who knew him best. We're going to need your help, if you want him to survive."

"Zelda, I don't know if I do. Maybe he's better off this way, rather than drafted into fighting for Hyrule, being the same as me. Gawked at by locals, prodded by scientists, hated by others. What kind of life would he have here? Not being able to partake of the simple joys of life like music and eating... and breathing, even. What if... what if he's a monster?"

There were no words. Zelda put her arms around Link's body as he tucked his head into her chest. Link just tried to breathe in and out and not think.

* * *

Bill knocked on the front door, which was already open.

"Hello?" he asked.

The blond robot was sitting in a chair, perched at a console. Two jacks were plugged into either side of her head through her ears. Bill didn't know much about humanoid robots, only the little worker drones they set him up with. He wasn't sure if interrupting one was gonna result in a system crash or data interruption or whatnot.

"Hello? Miss Roll?" he again tried to rouse her attention as nicely as possible. He walked into the computer room, a bit intimidating for him, and approached her. She had her eyes shut like she was deeply concentrating on something. The monitor in front of her was zipping though lines of information too fast for him to understand what they were. He looked back and forth between the two, trying to figure out what was going on. Maybe Roll was in the computer, and had to be talked to that way.

"Roll? Miss Roll?" he waved his hand in front of her face to try and provoke a reaction.

"Almost finished," she said.

The mustached man jumped back in surprise at her sudden statement. He guessed there was nothing for him to do but wait, as she said.

In a flash, Roll opened her eyes. The computer screen froze. "Yes?" she said sweetly as she reached under the machine.

"Um," Bill said. "The security system's back up at full. Internal and external. We've also wired a long-range radar that'll alert the armed forces if anyone tries a stunt like that again."

"Excellent." She pushed a button and a transportable diskette popped out of a slot. She began writing on it with a nearby marker as he was talking.

"We're about ready to pack up now. We're going to leave the mettools and a few others here, they've got some work to finish up, but they'll come back to us once they're finished. But all us humans are going home, unless there's anything else you need."

"No. Thank you for your assistance. On your way out, please set this on the living room table. Make it noticeable for anyone coming in."

She handed the diskette to him. The label read 'VASE RESEARCH'. "Oh sure, no problem," he said. "Is this what you were doing before?"

"I was finalizing and downloading all my research before you came in here. I feel now I am ready."

"Ready? For what?"

"To go after Wily."

 **Next Chapter: System Failure**


	26. System Failure

Link and Zelda were startled as the large double door started with a deep click. An old wizard pushed open the entryway with both hands. He came up to the two as the others who were in the room passed them, muttering to themselves solemnly. The expression on his face was doleful and sad. He had a long droopy gray beard and a cap that was so long it ran down his back. His black robe trailed with him.

Link and Zelda released their embrace as he came up. His eyes told the tale already.

"We've done all we can do for him," he said in a raspy, weathered voice. "We've never seen anything like it. The man has more moving parts in him than an hourglass. He even tried to talk us through it, but we simply haven't the knowledge or tools to do anything. His skin is so tough, it even broke my saw."

"Well, well, can't you use some magic? Something to repair him?" Link stammered.

"We tried that. All attempts to use magic failed, even our most powerful spells we could muster. He won't heal."

"Don't say that, there's got to be a way."

"Alas, if there is, even he could not tell us how."

Zelda interrupted. "How is he doing now?"

"The same as before. His speech is strange, the volume of his voice goes up and down, and there is a strange accent to it. He has trouble moving his arms and legs, he can only manage jittery movements. He goes in and out at times, things he calls 'processing overloads'. I'm afraid I see no hope for improvement."

"Can I go see him?" Link said.

"You can if you wish," he said.

"Thank you so much for all you've done," Zelda said to him, as Link immediately sped in.

The old man nodded and walked away. Zelda followed Link into the room. At the doorway, Link turned back to her.

"Actually, I'd like to be alone with him," he said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"All right," Zelda said as he turned away, "But try to remember what I said. Try to be understanding."

Link nodded. Zelda was unsure whether Link was going to take her advice. He didn't quite have the compassion she did. It had been replaced by the stubbornness of a courageous hero, one who wouldn't stop at anything from accomplishing a task. It was in his hands now though, she supposed. She picked up her skirt to prevent it from dragging and headed out of the hallway.

Link entered the smithery room, where they had taken Mega Man after the infirmary had failed to yield results. They took him to the place meant for creating weapons, armor, and other metal implements. Chains and large iron tongs hung in racks all over the room. Two fire kilns were at opposite corners, their flames extinguished for the moment. Other cauldrons of coal and weapon racks were spread throughout the large room. Why did they bring him in here? Was he really no more than this? Just a weapon? Classified as a weapon?

Mega Man laid face up on a table in the middle of the room. Link could tell that the people had been surrounding him, poking him, prodding him with their tools. It was like walking up to a dead body. No, not dead. A non-living body. Somehow, Link could no longer feel any life force coming from him, like a sixth sense. It was probably just something psychological in his head, some traumatic effect from what he had witnessed.

Mega Man turned his head slowly and looked up at Link.

"HeLLoo, LiNk. I'm afra-a-a-a-id you're nOt SeeINg me aTttt my BEest." He smiled, "I'll TRY-Y-Y to diver-r-r-rt pOWEr to my vocalization."

"What are you?" Link demanded in a low voice.

"I've told you before. I'm a robot. A mechanical-"

"No," Link stated angrily. "What are you really? Explain it so I can understand it, none of these strange words you keep spouting."

Mega Man sighed. "I am a machine."

"A machine? A machine that walks and talks? Like a mechanical man?"

"Yes, that's essentially it. My outer skin, or armor as you call it, is made of a titanium alloy. Titanium is a very hard metal found in the earth's crust that is easily formed. I do not have internal organs, I have "parts" that act somewhat like human parts do, but that's where the similarity ends. I do not have a brain, I have a CPU, which stands for central processing unit. Basically, it computes trillions of mathematical instructions per second. These instructions tell me to walk and talk and what to say and how to decide on a response to a stimulus."

"So you're not really in control of your actions."

"I am, in a sense. I can make my own decisions, but it's all based on how I was programmed. Programmed means what instructions I was given. For example, if I was programmed to garden, I would be able to make judgments based on what information I know about gardening, but I would not be able to construct a house, because I would not have instructions on how to do that."

"But you were 'programmed' for fighting."

"Yes. Originally, I was made to be a tool-user robot. But circumstances forced me to become a fighting robot."

"So you can't learn anything."

"Not quite. There is another part of us called 'artificial intelligence'. It's a part of our programming that allows us to learn new data and apply it to solve problems creatively. In other words, it's the ability to simulate human behavior."

"So you're just a simulation of a human."

"Exactly."

"Well, you did a good job."

Mega Man managed to smile at the compliment.

Link continued, "That's why you didn't eat, didn't breathe. You have none of those things inside you."

"Correct."

Link took a deep breath. He felt so betrayed right now, but he knew he had no right to be. It was his own ignorance that led him to this feeling. There was so much regret he had inside him. If he had known just how delicate he really was he could have taken more steps to protect him. He thought it was all his armor, that his armor was so strong it was invulnerable to all weapons. But it turns out it was just a shell for a machine as fragile as an egg.

Mega Man continued, "Robots as advanced and complex as me are very precise machines. Our parts need to be in almost 100 working order for us to function. That's why when my armor was penetrated, my elements were disrupted."

"Once your shell is cracked, it just takes a stiff breeze to blow you over."

"Correct, although it was a halberd."

"And your entire world made up of these robots, just like you. Programmed to do what they're told."

"Not precisely. There are many robots, but humans are the dominant life form, just like you. Humans were the ones who built all robots and robots are meant to serve humans."

"It sounds like slavery to me."

"Slavery would mean that we are forced to do the things we do. But since we are programmed to be this way, we do it willingly. It's complicated, even in my time. There are arguments about it that reach the highest level of government. But we are machines. Most humans treat robots as equals. We work alongside humans instead of for them."

"That sounds so terrible. Living at the edge of being human, but never being able to be one. Somewhere in between life and..." Link stopped. He was in danger of losing himself, he could sense it, so he stopped before he went too far. "I guess I just don't understand."

Mega Man smirked a little and turned his head back up to the ceiling. "In my world, we have a legend too. The story of a boy named Pinocchio. The legend goes that there was a carpenter long ago, a great maker of puppets, but he had no child of his own. So he wished for one upon the first star he saw. That night as he slept, a blue fairy came down and made one of the puppets walk and talk. But he was still made of wood. The fairy told him that if he acted responsibly he would someday become a real boy, and provided him a talking cricket to act as his conscience. I guess that's kind of like our situation, trying to become like humans, but our own abilities and aspects preventing us from achieving it. Both from internal forces and external. But others say robots cannot have desires because they don't have emotions. I don't know."

They both sat looking at each other for a while. Neither had anything to say.

"So what happens now?" Link asked.

"If I was in my world, I would need a plasma welder, an electron tuner, an F.I.F. microscope, and a diagnostic computer. Of course, all those things are impossible here, and I don't believe there's any equipment precise enough to restore me to full working order. In fact, it may have an adverse effect on me. Those magicians that were in here, I tried to tell them what was happening, but they were no help."

"They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No, I tried to politely explain it, but they just shook their heads and figured they could do nothing about it."

Link slammed his fist on the table and gritted his teeth. "Those fools. I'll have them-"

"They were right."

Link stood back up and looked at him.

"They were right, there is nothing they can do about it. There is nothing anything can do about it. A club impacted through the armor of my right shoulder, it's down 50 power and speed now and will continue as it loses alignment. I'll eventually lose all use of it. The side where my fuel capacitator is has been damaged, but I don't know to what extent. You can see the miscellaneous dents in my armor. It's taking all my processing power to correct the errors to my memory cache," he held up his arm to the side of his head, "To the calculations that I'm running, so I can't perform normal activities any longer until my systems are repaired. I suppose my system will eventually degrade enough until I can no longer speak or move. I'll no longer be able to process information. I'm not exactly sure what will happen then."

Link glared down at Mega Man, suppressing any sort of emotion that could creep out.

"Do not worry though," the robot said. "I feel no pain. Robots cannot feel pain. However, it seems to me that an existence such as this is not helpful to anyone. I will become a dead weight to you. I'll become not much more than a statue," he smiled at the humor in that. Perhaps he could be put on display in the royal hall, with a placard showing his great deeds. "It's getting difficult to focus on my surroundings as well. The error correction is taking away from that as well. Clearly, there is no reason to keep me here like this. I'm only a burden to others. I'm taking up space in this very armory."

"Don't say things like that."

Mega Man continued heedless, "When I can no longer respond to outside stimuli, that will mean all my CPU is occupied. Something like a coma, but I will not dream, I will retain consciousness and thought-processing but be unable to apply it. I cannot self-deactivate. When that time comes, I would appreciate it if you would find some way to destroy my body."

"No! I will never do that."

"This is a very important favor that I'm asking you. I do not wish to be trapped in a constant state of consciousness forever without the ability to interact with my environment. There's nothing you can do for me now."

"Like hell there is!"

Link grabbed Mega Man's torso and began pulling him off the table. He had to dig his feet into the floor to get the leverage to start pulling his body. He groaned loudly as his muscles burned with pain, but he welcomed it.

"What are you doing?" Mega Man said.

Link pivoted Mega Man's legs around until they hung off the table. He pulled Mega Man's head up until he was sitting straight.

"Unless you have something alternative in mind, you are wasting energy," Mega Man said.

"Can you walk?" Link moaned through gritted teeth as he pulled Mega Man's arm over his shoulder, the cold metal digging into his bone.

"I do not know."

"Well," he strained to speak as he pushed upwards on his body. "Turn off all that other stuff you were worried about and get off the table."

Mega Man complied, diverting power to his leg systems. With a shaky step, he came down from the table and stood on his own. Although not fully functional he was able to make small steps forward. He looked to Link who was bearing his top weight for him.

"You are causing yourself pain, I cannot allow this."

"Just go, dammit! Move forward. I'm not letting you die without a fight."

"Where are we going?" he said as they moved towards the door.

"To the only thing that has the power to help you now. The golden power."

 **Next Chapter: The Triforce**


	27. The Triforce

"Link! You cannot do this. This is absolutely out of the question."

Zelda scuttled down the stairs, following so close to Link she was practically jumping on his back. He ignored her callings and concentrated on getting his friend down the stairs. He was of a single mind now. The pain in his shoulder had forced him into a mental state of a single track - get Mega Man to the Triforce.

"Link, are you listening to me? Argh," she screamed as she caught her dress on the banister, slowing her down. "Stupid dress," she fiddled with the hooks on the railing, finally ripping her sleeve out of its grasp. "Link!" she raced down the stairs and caught up with him. "Link, you are not thinking straight. This is absolutely not an option."

"This is the last option."

"Do you even know the full power of the Triforce? It is omnipotence personified. It's the end all and be all of all things. Men have gone mad over it. It's been the cause of Hyrule's trouble since it was created."

Link snapped his head to Zelda, "Don't talk to me like I'm one of those people who got lost in the Dark World. I've used the Triforce. I held it up in triumph over Ganon's crumpled body. I know exactly what it's capable of. I was the one who saved it. I was the one who rebuilt Hyrule with it. I think that gives me a little leeway to use it as I see fit."

"The Triforce is a forbidden relic now. No one is allowed to touch it. That's why it's locked way down here in the heart of the castle. You, me, and the king are the only ones who know it's down here. Of course, now he does as well."

"What are you saying Zelda? Just spit it out," he snapped angrily.

"I don't trust him." Zelda glowered down at him from the step above. There was fury in her eyes. If there was one thing in the world she had to protect it was the Triforce from falling into enemy hands. Her duties were few, but she took them very seriously. "There, are you happy? I said it."

"You don't trust him? How can you say that after all he's done."

"I do trust him, but not as far as the Triforce is concerned. It's far too powerful to be taken lightly. It's not to be used for getting whatever you want like this."

"Have I ever used it like a spoiled child? Just gathering what I want like a kid in the candy store. Saying you don't trust him is like saying you don't trust me."

"As far as this is concerned, yes. You're letting your emotions get to you. What if he had planned this all along. Waiting for the right time to strike. He could be an agent of Ganondorf, or someone working on his own devices." Link became suddenly angered by that word - 'devices'. The irony of it bit back deep within him. Zelda continued, "He came from an alternate world. We know nothing about him or his origins."

"I don't need to know about his origins. I don't know what happened to my parents, either. I was raised by my uncle. I could be the son of Agahnim for all I know. So tell me again that origins matter."

Zelda was starting to get frustrated at Link, who just kept walking down the stairs regardless. Mega Man was eerily silent, but still moving. There was little time left for him and he knew it. There couldn't be anything stopping them now, not even their allies.

"Link, you have to stop. I order you to stop."

"I can't stop. You know that. If I stop, he dies. That will not happen." The biting pain in his shoulder surged anew with each step, but Link mustered his courage and continued on.

The reached the bottom of the staircase. A massive wall with the royal insignia faintly carved on it blocked their progress. Two leaf stems curling upwards around it surrounded the Triforce symbol. The design at the bottom showed something like a sun splashing out light rays. To someone who didn't know, it appeared to be a dead end, but it was the last blockade to the chamber.

The two stopped in front of the door, with Zelda standing on one step above them. "I'm not gonna let you in, Link."

"And I'm not gonna move until you do." He glared at the door, holding Mega Man up with his aching shoulder, now trying to lift his weight a little higher with his free hand.

Zelda and Link stood there in a stare-off without the staring. Both had the firmest resolutions to not budge an inch. Time was of the essence and they both were wasting it.

"This vault door takes two of us to open," Link reminded, breaking the silence.

"I know."

The silence hung in the air again for a brief moment. Link turned up to her. "Come on, Zelda. You know this is the right thing to do. More than you want to protect the Triforce, you want to save a life. His life. He's worth it. It's worth opening the Triforce."

"Link, I wouldn't even do this for you."

Her words were harsh, but she was right. The debate on the Triforce was long and hard, but its power was unimaginable and power corrupts. The final decision was to keep it locked away from mortal's hands as best they could - deep in the heart of the palace, with as few people knowing of its location as possible. This would also prevent the temptation to use it by those who knew even. No one would use it for any purpose.

"I know you wouldn't, Zelda. We all agreed to that. But he didn't!" he cried out, pleading. "He didn't make that choice. He's a stranger in a strange land. He was brought here by some whirlwind of fate and dropped here and he was attacked by our enemies, not his."

"Then maybe it's his fate to die here."

"It's not his fate to die at all! He told me. He is a robot. He is a machine. He can't die. It would be like trying to kill a rock." For some reason, as he spoke the words he understood. He understood what Mega Man was, as if the words were being provided for him. "But whatever it is he does when he stops functioning, he's about to do it. And I can't let that happen. I can't live my life knowing I didn't try. And I don't think you could either. So please. I'm asking you, please, help me."

Zelda thought. She didn't realize the consequences of her actions. For some reason, these last words of Link were starting to get to her. Mega Man, whatever he was, had bravely sacrificed himself for their motives, without knowing why or wanting any reward. It wasn't even part of his destiny, and yet he did it because he wanted to. He had the choice, but he didn't choose this. He was purely innocent.

Zelda stepped down the stairs past Link and Mega Man. "All right, I'll do it. But I'm still against it. And I don't want anyone to know about this. This is a secret we take to our graves."

"Understood," Link nodded, still with a grim, determined expression on his face. He set Mega Man against the wall, leaning him up and approached the vault door.

Zelda held up a gloved hand to the right side of the wall, over the wisdom portion of the Triforce. Link stood at the left side. "Ready?" she asked.

Link withdrew his sword from its sheath and nodded.

Zelda waved her hand in a circle over the crest. Blue starry sparkles trailed from her glowing fingers as the magic spell worked its way into the locking mechanism. Rays of green light splayed out from her hand. Link concentrated and built up strength in his sword. A trail of energy traveled down the metal of the blade and glistened at the tip, pulsating with power. He thrust it into the crest of courage as it glowed. The wall seemed to melt around the blade, letting it pass through like a ripple of water. The crest on Zelda's side glowed bright yellow as well, forced by the magic spell.

The door began raising off the floor with a low rumble. Bits of gravel and dust rained down below as the wall slowly rose up over their heads, portentously hanging over the doorway. As this was going on, Link replaced his sword and came back to Mega Man's side. Picking him up on his hurting shoulder, he pulled him away from the wall and took him into the darkened room, only dimly lit by what came down from the torch-lit staircase. Zelda passed under the archway as well and pointed to each side of the room. Candle holders lit up brightly from her magic touch.

The vault was a large overawing room, built like a chapel. Curtains adorned with the royal insignia hung at each gray brick wall. Each of the three surrounding walls had a stained glass representation of the Triforce. The center of the room had a two tier marble pedestal covered with a red carpet. The three golden triangles of the Triforce, joined together, floated above the silvery granite plinth, ominous, motionless. This was the heart of the castle. The heart of Hyrule itself.

"This is a selfish request," Zelda said indignantly. "If someone with a selfish heart makes a request, it will grant it selfishly."

"That's why I'm not going to make the request. He will."

Link and Mega Man stopped at the edge of the room. He hoisted Mega Man's arm off his shoulder and gently nudged him forward.

"Oh, by the gods, Link. This is so foolish. What if he is not balanced? The Triforce pieces will split and the land will be covered in darkness again."

The legend stated that whoever touches the Triforce will make their wishes come true, but only if that person's heart is balanced in the forces of courage, wisdom, and power. If it wasn't, the Triforce would split. That person would keep the piece that he was strongest in, and the other two would go to whoever in the land was chosen by destiny to keep those pieces they represented. Link was not ignorant of this factor.

"He is balanced. I've seen him through thick and thin. I've watched him on the battlefield, and I've watched him at rest. He will accept the Triforce and the Triforce will accept him."

But inside, Link was worried. Mega Man didn't have a heart to be balanced. He didn't have a mind to make a wish. How could a rock have a desire? Could it? Would the Triforce ignore him like he wasn't even there? Was he really alive? What would the Triforce do? Link suddenly felt a pang of regret and trepidation, messing with god-like powers he did not completely understand.

Mega Man channeled some power to his ocular receptors, diverting some from his more dispensable structures at the moment. He could only afford the necessary systems running right now. As his eyes returned to focus, the first thing he saw was a great yellow light. This light was... unexplainable. One that seemed to grow brighter as he looked at. It was... so beautiful. There was no other way to describe it really. It was if it irradiated a healing sense to it, something beyond Mega Man's robotic comprehension, something that would help people. If Mega Man could put the word 'holy' to anything, this would be it.

He turned back to Link and Zelda, who were standing in front of the doorway, watching him. "What do I do?"

"It's called the Triforce. Touch it with a wish in your hea- in your mind," Link answered.

Mega Man interpreted this as some sort of touch interface to another magic spell, something that had already proven not to work. Link and Zelda seemed to believe it would though, and there wasn't much time left before total system failure. He decided to make the one last request he would be able to fulfill satisfied. Accelerating power to his legs, he approached the object floating in the middle of the room above a pedestal. It was a golden metal triangle, composed of three smaller triangles stacked like a pyramid.

He looked back at the two, still standing at the doorway as if they were afraid to enter the room. They seemed so far away, but he could see their encouraging faces urging him on. He turned back to the Triforce, figuring he had nothing to lose. He reached out his hand and placed his palm on its center.

 _Heal me._

The Triforce glowed anew, radiating even more holy light than before, spilling it into the room like a flood. Sudden sensations gripped Mega Man's body, overwhelming sensations, unlike anything he had ever experienced. It felt like a million unseen hands were traveling through his body like a bloodstream, weaving in and out of his insides, roaming over his outsides.

"I... I can hear it," Mega Man said. "It's... speaking to me... somehow... But I can't... I can't understand."

"It's working," Link said, noticing his speech patterns were returning to normal.

Mega Man ran diagnostics over his body. The number of errors he was getting dropped to fewer and fewer. The metal of his body reformed and reshaped, punching out the dings until it returned to its smooth titanium shell. His CPU processing strain reduced immensely, no longer having to overcompensate for permeating difficulties. His body was actually self-healing, self-repairing. The feeling was like going to sleep, Mega Man thought. Systems came back online, working better than before. He felt like he was fresh off the worktable again. Diagnostics showed the efficiency of his work output was as close to 100 as he had ever seen. It was as if the Triforce was perfecting his system. It was almost too good to be true.

Suddenly, systems began coming online that Mega Man didn't even know he had, or that had been archaic. Upgrades were downgrading, downgrades were upgrading. Unused code was being used but somehow his system still worked. Something strange was happening. His circuits were in perfect working order, something he was not used to. He was 100 error-free. Mega Man figured he was just unused to the sensation. Somehow the Triforce sensed this and altered its healing powers to not contradict his existing systems. Processing increased, memory cache efficiency was up. The Triforce continued doing its work.

Suddenly, Mega Man felt his weapon copy system activate. He looked down at his arm cannon in shock and confusion. His scanning circuitry activated, analyzing the Triforce he was touching. If his information was right, the learning system was somehow processing the Triforce as a new weapon for his Mega Buster system. Mega Man tried to pull his hand away, but the force was too strong. Either the Triforce, or his own arm cannon, or both were keeping him there. The component continued its reformation independent of Mega Man's requests to cancel it. New instructions were being added to his program that he had no control over. Desperately, Mega Man tried to stop it, but to no avail. Some sort of merge was happening.

The Triforce began glowing brighter than before, reaching beyond tolerable limits, extending to Mega Man's body. Link and Zelda had to shield their eyes. A great humming began echoing in the chamber, high-pitched, the sound of something overloading.

Mega Man screamed.

"Mega Man! Let go!" Zelda shouted.

The humming reached its highest point, almost to where human ears could no longer hear. The light extinguished and Mega Man flew back into the wall, impacting and rolling off, crumpled on the floor.

 **Next Chapter: The Laws**


	28. The Laws

Roll had never been in the hospital before. The modernization of old buildings left a new traveler at a bit of a loss. A quick look at the directory told her where she needed to go though. Dr. Light's room was 1011, ironically, also a binary number. She traveled through long corridors and hallways, receptionist desks, and unlabeled doors until she finally found Dr. Light's room. He was resting comfortably, watching TV.

She knocked on the door. "Dr. Light?" she asked.

Dr. Light turned from his TV and looked to the doorway, his expression washed to one of great delight. "Roll, so good to see you. Please come in."

Roll complied. She noticed that a bouquet of colorful flowers rested in a vase next to his bed. "Who are the flowers from?" she asked.

"Oh, the hospital puts them in every room, replaces them every week. They're quite lovely though."

Roll would have liked to smell them as humans did, but it would tell her nothing but what chemicals and ingredients were vaporizing from the plant. There was no point.

"I've finished my research on the vase, Dr. Light. I've discovered that there is a design on the vase that matches a binary electrical pulse pattern used in old computer network communication transmissions."

"Oh, fascinating, a binary number in picture form, and I had it all along. What does it mean?"

"I'm afraid I don't know. I've translated the code, but it doesn't seem to have any application. Translating into text, numbers, and other basic applications seems to result in gibberish."

"Oh, yes, binary language by itself only translates into numbers, but every system is different for how it's interpreted. One might treat it as ASCII code and another might treat it as a picture, and if it's really a CAD/CAM program, both are going to spit back garbage."

"I've concluded my research on the topic and found no usable conclusions. I simply can't tell what it's good for or why Wily wanted it. My results have been compiled and downloaded to a disk. You'll find it in the living room when you come back home."

"Excellent. Wait a minute, Roll. Are you not going to be there when I get back?"

Roll sheepishly looked down at Dr. Light's sheets. "Well, that's what I came here to ask you about. I wanted to do it in person, rather than through the phone." She looked back into his eyes. "I know the upgrades you gave me were piecemeal, but they still work really well, almost better than Rock's. I have increased physical capacity, honed sensors-"

"Roll, what is it you're trying to ask me?"

"I want to go after Wily."

Dr. Light clenched his fist as Roll speedily continued with points to support the prudence of her request.

"I've already been upgraded to at least Rock's equivalent. Granted I have no battle experience, but neither did Rock when he first went out, and I've been learning from him all these years. I know how it works, I know what to do. Time is running out for us, and I know Dr. Wily has something big planned. I can find Dr. Wily's castle and put a stop to him before he has the chance to do anything. I have the know-how and-"

Dr. Light fluttered his hand, shushing her. "No Roll, it's not about that," he sighed. "You know how much I hated having to turn your brother into a fighting robot. You remember?"

"Yes."

"And you must know that I felt the same way about you. I never wanted you to know the harshness of war. Killing your own kind, it's... it's inhuman." Dr. Light could barely comprehend what he was saying, but it sounded right. Morality was a subjective topic far beyond his comprehension. He felt he had no right to wax poetic on it.

"I know the sacrifices Rock had to make, and I'm willing to take on the same burden. Until we find out what happened to him, who else is going to do it? Who else is capable?"

"There is no one else," Dr. Light agreed. "But it's not about your strength or cunning or skill. It's about afterwards. It's about living with the choices you make. It's... no, I'm sorry. I'm thinking about myself." Dr. Light had to remind himself that robots did not have feelings. They learned, but could not emote. Roll had learned from her brother and wanted to be like him, a sort of role model, and there was no way he could stop that. All these feelings of sacrifices and consequences he was going on about applied to himself only.

He continued, "Roll, I know you can do it. I don't want you to do it, because it means risking losing you. But I always did what I did for the greater good of humanity. I tell myself that every night before I go to bed. I wake up every morning with that goal." He turned away from her and looked out the window. Bright white light streamed in from the sun. "You don't have to ask my permission, Roll."

"No, Dr. Light. I felt that it was necessary to get your approval to go on this quest. You may need me at home more since you are incapacitated. Your tasks require you to have a servant, but since you are here currently-"

"No," Dr. Light interrupted her. "I mean you don't have to ask my permission at all... for anything."

"What?" Roll cocked her head to the side, confused.

"You have free will. Completely. You can do anything you want, only your physical and mental limitations will prevent you from doing so."

They both stared at each other for a moment. Neither knew exactly what the other was thinking.

"I don't understand."

Dr. Light sighed again. Saying these things out loud was the hardest thing he ever had to do. The risk was overwhelming. Dr. Light explained, "The three laws of robotics, the rules that are required by law to be programmed into any and all robots meeting the standards of A.I. set by the Tokyo Conference."

"Yes."

"You don't have those. And neither does your brother."

Roll's jaw dropped wide open.

"Dr. Light! That's..." she hushed her voice down to a whisper. "That's illegal."

"I know it is. But it's the only way I could get your programming to work. The A.I... it wouldn't function with those laws in place. Something in the code conflicted with the rules and it went screwy. It's what happened to your brother... your other brother. So I took them out."

"But how did you get around the inspection. I mean the tests. There are tests designed to check that the laws are installed. We surely took them."

"Aha, that's the ingenious part. You A.I. is so advanced I simply programmed in your morality. That's why when you were tested to see if you would break the laws, you wouldn't go through with it. There was never any part of your programming that cancelled out your actions when they were about to conflict with the laws. You simply chose not to act."

"Dr. Light, do you know what this means? You're putting your entire career and reputation at risk. You're chancing your future by telling me this. Do you know what the ramifications are?"

"Yes, that's why I'm hoping you won't tell anyone. It's my dark secret. I took a big risk in telling you this, because... now I'm not sure how you will act on it. Every time your brother goes out there, he is capable of so much more, and I'm afraid someday he will learn that he is capable of overcoming the laws. That he does not need to follow our orders, that he does not need to preserve his body, and that he... has the ability to harm humans."

She knew what he meant. If Mega Man had somehow killed Dr. Wily, if he lost himself in the moment, all would be revealed. This was all a lot for Roll to comprehend. She put a hand to her forehead in stress, trying to gather all this new information she had received. "So you're telling me that all this time, ever since I was created. I... I had free will. I could do whatever I wanted."

"Yes. You have the power. You and your brother. You could leave me right now, if you wanted to. Find your own way."

"Oh, no, Dr. Light, I'd never do that. I couldn't do that to you, no matter what." She hunched over Dr. Light's body and hugged him tightly.

"I know, dear," he said as he patted her back. "But I'm not going to be around forever. You'll have to take care of yourself on your own someday."

Roll thought of something and stood back up. "Does Dr. Wily know? What about the other robots?"

"No, Dr. Wily has no idea about you two. He handled more of the hardware and mechanical aspect, the physical. I handled the software. He never realized what I had done to you. The others, Cut Man, Guts Man, and all, they had the rules programmed in them just fine. Their A.I., for some reason, accepted the laws. It was no more advanced than yours, but they had no difficulties with following them. I never could figure out why. Sometimes I wonder whether it was that aspect that made your brother resist Wily's reprogramming." He turned his head to the side. "That's why I worry so much about Mega Man. There's always a possibility he might come back... a murderer. And then, we know what would happen, right? But I just can't bring myself to tell him from fear. I have no idea what he would do if he knew. What either of you would do."

"I'm so... I feel so lost. I don't know what I should do now. It... it... it feels like a whole new realm of possibilities are open up for me."

"I know. The possibilities were always there, you just know that they are now."

"So what do I do? I don't know how to act right now."

"It's up to you, Roll. The choice is yours."

* * *

*blip*

Mega Man felt his system's stand-by recovery procedure complete, even though he had no record of activating it in the first place. The last thing he remembered was touching the Triforce and feeling some strange sensations. The green and peach shape of Link's head came into view as he opened his eyes. He was lying prone on the floor, still in the Triforce room.

"He's awake!" Link exclaimed. Zelda came rushing over and looked down on him too.

"I knew it," she said.

Mega Man darted his eyes between the two. "Am I... all right?"

"I was going to ask you that," Link said. "We couldn't find any signs of life, cause you don't have any signs of life, but we could hear some noise in your body, so we thought you were still okay, just knocked unconscious."

"I feel strange... good."

"Hmph, that's to be expected," Zelda said. "Coming so closely into contact with the Triforce like that. Who knows what effects it had on you."

The weapon copy system, Mega Man remembered. His weapon copy system had activated during the healing process. He checked his arm cannon status and found it to be fully operational, the same as the rest of his body, however, in addition to the Mega Buster and the empty Thunder Beam, there was a third weapon labeled simply - Triforce.

"My buster cannon," Mega Man said as he sat up, looking at his arm. "It activated during the healing process. It copied the Triforce."

"It did what?" Link said.

"My arm cannon has a copy system, that learns the weapon schemas from other robots I've defeated and so I can use them in my own system. The Thunder Beam was one of them, you saw it," he said to Link. He nodded in understanding. "But when I touched the Triforce, the copy system activated, and now it's one of my weapons."

"It's what?" Link asked in astonishment. "You mean you can fire the Triforce out of your arm? Your cannon, I mean."

"I don't know. I don't really know how the weapon works until I use it, because of the nature of the circuitry switching around."

"You've got to be kidding me," Zelda said. "You're telling me you have a weapon of the Gods now?" She threw up her hands and turned around. "I knew it! I knew it was a mistake."

"Calm down, Zelda, he's on our side," Link argued.

"What happens if someone gets a hold of him. If someone 'unprograms' him and 'reprograms' him to be on their side."

"Excuse me," Mega Man piped up, "But I don't believe that will be possible."

Zelda pointed, "You also thought it was impossible for you to get hurt."

"No one's going to reprogram him," Link said. "I don't know why you're looking at this as a bad thing. It's amazing. He's been able to harness the power of the Triforce, somehow. He can use it as a weapon. Do you know what we could do with that... oh."

"The same thing we could do with the actual Triforce?" Zelda responded acerbically. "The same thing we all agreed not to do? The thing that the guy who didn't agree to all that CAN do?"

"I'm sorry, but if I could interrupt you for a moment," Mega Man said. "I'm afraid I don't understand what you all are talking about. I'm not very clear on what the Triforce is, exactly."

Link turned to Mega Man. "The legend goes: the world was created by three gods from a distant nebula - the God of Wisdom, the God of Power, and the God of Courage. They each formed the land according to their will, creating the mountains, rivers, life, science, magic, everything. And when they departed, they left behind a symbol of their might, the Triforce. Each of the triangles represented one of the gods, so individually, they're the Triforce of Courage, Wisdom, and Power. The Triforce was hidden in the Golden Land where people would seek it. I wish I could tell you where that was exactly, but I don't know myself. It seemed to be an alternate Hyrule of some kind."

"Alternate dimension..." Mega Man mused. "Go on."

"Well, the Triforce has the power to grant the wishes in the hearts and minds of whoever touches it. Before, Ganondorf had it. He was an evil thief that became trapped in the Golden Land, after he changed it to the Dark World, just like I told you before."

Mega Man nodded.

"And when I recovered it, I used it to bring back peace to Hyrule, to help everyone who helped me. Other than that, we really don't know much about it or how it works."

"Wishes in the hearts and minds of people," Mega Man pondered as he stared at his arm, trying to think of the possibilities. "Does that mean I have a... 'wish cannon'?"

"I don't know," Zelda said. "The Triforce is capable of anything, but you've said your arm cannon turned it into a weapon." She shook her head sadly. "Anything could be possible."

Mega Man cradled his arm. "I don't think I'd like to use this weapon. Although it seems powerful, I wonder if it's too powerful. It may overload my circuits, maybe even blow me up."

Horace, the captain of the guards, came into the open chamber and stopped at the doorway, perhaps afraid to come in. "Princess Zelda," he called to her. She turned around and Horace beckoned for her to come closer. She left the group to talk to him in private, like he apparently wanted.

Mega Man ran a diagnostic on his weapon systems. The Triforce weapon was taking up all the remaining space in his data storage. He could delete it from his memory, but that would also be a risk. Not all enemies were vulnerable to his weapons, as he had seen.

"This Triforce," Mega Man said to Link, "Is it truly omnipotent?"

"As far as I know it is. There was nothing I could not wish it to do. But when you have a power like that, it's hard not to do everything you want to. If you wish for evil things, it will grant it in an evil way. Ganondorf wanted to take over the world, so the Golden Land turned into the Dark World. That's why I didn't make any more wishes than I did. I only thought of what was necessary. As you can see, everything's far from perfect, but-"

Link and Mega Man became aware of Zelda coming to them, looking over them with a worried expression on her face.

"The moblins," she said. "They've begun attacking the village. A full-scale attack. I've got every soldier I can spare on their way down, but it's not gonna be enough."

Link and Mega Man looked at each other. "Feeling up to it?" Link grinned.

Mega Man stood up, feeling stronger than ever. "Locked and loaded," he said.

Zelda reached behind her back and held out her bow and quiver. "Here, take this, you'll need it," she said.

"Thank you," Link slung the weapon on his back. "You know, you could come with us. You're a pretty good shot."

"No. As much as I'd like to, I have my role, and you have yours."

"All right. Mega Man, you ready?"

"Rock and roll."

 **Next Chapter: Inheritance**


	29. Inheritance

Chaos reigned in Kakariko.

Screams of terror flew through the village. Women holding their babies took flight from the ravaging monsters. Brave citizens battled with the meager weapons they had, but the javelins being hurled at them from afar were no match for them. They took the same path as the women and children. Palace soldiers fought them off as best they could with their swords, but the moblins could pick them off at a distance with their spears. Their brute strength and sheer numbers had the royal guard in a futile vice grip. It took three soldiers to bring down one moblin and only after they had backed it into a corner.

Most of the monsters chased after the humans, others destroyed buildings. With a roar, a moblin used his torch to set one of the houses ablaze. Several others overturned a nearby cart filled with wine caskets. Red liquid poured onto the dirt like a waterfall, seeping into the earth. Another bashed a house with his iron club, thunderous booming sounded as the cracks in the wall grew deeper and deeper. They were driving the humans out.

One moblin pulled a gigantic gray rock up from the ground, uprooting clumps of dirt and grass. He hoisted it above his head and plodded menacingly toward a house. Eyeing the thatched roof he leaned back, getting ready to throw it.

An arrow flung threw the air and implanted in his back. The moblin screamed in pain and lost his grip on the boulder, which came crashing down in his head. The unconscious pig-dog slumped forward as Link sprang into the air and stabbed downward with his sword. The monster vanished.

"Let's get it on," Link said. He rushed into the fray and began swiping at moblins left and right as he made a beeline for the center of the village. Some monsters cleared away and others ended up at the tip of his blade. A huge moblin suddenly jumped out at him, startling Link. The beast shoved him to the ground and raised up his spear to stab into Link's heart.

Yellow blobs of energy rained down from above, penetrating through the moblin's flesh, poking him with holes like a pencil through paper. The assailant vanished.

Link looked up to the roof of the house. Mega Man was standing perched on a corner of the roof, his Mega Buster aimed carefully. He looked to Link, smirked, and gave him a 'thumbs-up'.

Link turned down the village street while Mega Man sniped two more moblins from a distance. One of the monsters uttered a guttural noise to the air, something like a howl and a repeated call. The monster pulled a pink crystal out of his armor and held it up to the sky. Uttering the magic words, the crystal exploded and showered Kakariko with a sparkling red rain. The moblins absorbed the powder of the crystal and continued fighting. Mega Man tried to fire his plasma cannon again, but met with the same results as last time - the shots impacted harmlessly on their armor.

"So it's this game again?" Mega Man commented. Several moblins clamored around the corner of the building Mega Man was looking down on them from, bashing the sides the building and shaking it's support structure to tumble him down. "Fine," he said. He tucked into a ball and flipped end over end down into the group, uncoiling and kicking the center one in the head. Landing on his face he flipped onto his hands and spun around, kicking his feet out into the monster's faces. The two beasts recoiled back into the wall as Mega Man turned upright and straight punched both of them in the face. They fell over unconscious.

"Some people learn from their mistakes," he commented.

Meanwhile, Link engaged in battle with several moblins at the same time, slashing his sword up and down. He broke one of their spears in two, and raised his shield just as another came hurling at him. The polearm's thrust knocked Link off balance as he tumbled into another's waiting grasp. Skillfully, he turned into his inertia, spinning around the moblin's body to his back and stabbing his sword into his armor, reducing him to vapor.

He pulled out his magic boomerang and chucked it at a moblin coming towards him. The boomerang flew forward as Link crossed diagonally, getting as much distance between him and a string of moblins as possible. The weapon banged against the monster's head, stunning him, and began flying back to Link. As the line of monsters starting gunning for him, the boomerang knocked each one of them in the head, coming towards Link like a skipping stone. Each of the monsters swayed and grasped their heads in pain as Link caught the curved stick.

Link shuffled his feet and held his sword out in front of him. Barreling forward with a scream he took off like a shot, ramming into the moblins and making them disappear with the point of his sword, like a human spear. The beasts vanished one by one, and Link skidded to a stop at the end of his run.

The moblins were now beginning to see the tides were turning. The two warriors used their wits to outclass the vile monsters. The palace guards saw the amazing battles of Link and Mega Man and became inspired themselves, fighting with renewed vigor. The fiends began falling back, taking the defensive stance, instead of the offensive.

One of the moblins grunted a call that sounded throughout the village. Mega Man and Link knew what it was even before they took action - a retreat.

Mega Man pummeled one of the monsters, throwing him across the street, into another running group of them, heading for the forest. Or so he thought, until he saw them jumping in a well. Possibly another Zora waterway, Mega Man thought, but it seemed unusual when the forest was close by. Another group of them moved into a nearby house on a hill. He started wandering through the square paths of the village until he found Link.

"The moblins are retreating, but they're going into the wells and houses," he said.

"A hidden lair," Link said resolutely. "Let's go." He and Mega Man headed into the direction of the house. Link stopped at one of the wandering palace guards, running after the moblins as well. "Take care of the village, we'll go after the moblins," he shouted as he flew past.

They climbed up the hill and entered the house. It was constructed with metal, so it was not burned or tumbled down. It was empty, though, and ransacked. The tables and chairs were overturned. The cauldron on the fire had been spilled on the floor, leaving some sort of strong-smelling vegetable stew to rot. No sign of moblins though.

"The basement?" Mega Man said.

Link pulled up an obvious cellar door and the two headed down the stairs. The underground room was also made of metal, unusual for a house in this day and age. Various barrels and boxes were stored in the room, cluttering up the walls. No moblins here either.

"Damn, where'd they go?" Link said. "They didn't just disappear."

Mega Man scanned the room with his optical sensors, particularly x-ray. There was a dark blotch against one wall. "There," Mega Man pointed. "Should be some sort of entrance there." He approached the wall and began feeling around it for a seam or crack to push in. Link meanwhile was checking the barrels in the room. One that was placed a little away from the others seemed suspicious. He pushed it back against the other barrels and the door opened, much to Mega Man's surprise.

"How'd you do that?" he asked.

"Simple logic. Pushing the barrel opens the door," he smiled.

The two treaded into the door and found themselves in a long tunnel, lined with hieroglyphics and pictures. "It's a dungeon," Link said. "Very dangerous. Watch yourself." Link was worried about Mega Man's ability in a temple. He didn't have the know-how he took for granted of how these things worked. A mechanical man might take a straightforward approach and fall to his death.

"Up ahead," Mega Man pointed out, using his keen eyesight. "Moblins are running down there."

Link took out his sword. "After them."

The two made tracks down the corridor, sloping downward deeper into the underground. The portly moblins were easily overtaken, as they huffed down, looking behind them at the warriors pursuing.

Just as they reached the exit of the corridor, Link pulled out his ice rod and fired a streaming blast of icy energy. One of the monsters froze in his tracks, encased in ice. Mega Man jump-kicked him in the torso, shattering him into a million pieces. The other Link aimed at with his bow and fired two shots at the same time. The arrows hit their marks true and the fiend disappeared in a blast of magic energy.

"We got the tools, we got the talent," he said.

"More." Mega Man pointed at other moblins escaping. There was a large uncrossable canal in the middle of the room, flowing from and into two sewer grates. A large crate which the monsters had been using to cross floated in the middle of the canal. One of the moblins lagging behind saw the heroes at the other end of the room, picked up his spear and tossed it through the crate. The polearm penetrated and the crate began sinking to the bottom, bubbling up air.

The walls were too steep to climb out from if they jumped in. Thinking quickly, Mega Man jumped into the water, sinking faster than the box. Making short hops he slid under it as its shadowed form fell on him, and held it up. With the buoyancy of the water, the container weighed practically nothing as he sprang up from the ground.

Link saw the crate rise back up. Gathering a running start he leapt into the air and landed squarely on the box as Mega Man reached the apex of his climb. Rapidly he coursed a few steps across it and jumped to the other side of the canal, catching the edge of the wall and pulling himself up the rest of the way.

Mega Man shoved the crate away, once he had seen Link's wavering form climb up the wall from his underwater vantage point. He bounced off the canal floor and burst out of the surface. Not enough to grab the wall though. Before he began sinking, Link reached out and grabbed Mega Man's arm. Using all his strength he pulled him up enough so he could grab the ledge with one hand, groaning all the time. Mega Man hoisted himself up and climbed to solid ground.

"Whew," Link uttered. "Almost threw out my arm."

"Nice job," Mega Man said. "Let's keep going."

The two kept on the same path the moblins took, through a darkened doorway. A wall blocked off the next room they found, one that didn't reach the stone ceiling.

"It appears to be some sort of maze," Mega Man said. "My x-ray's not penetrating the stone, must be lead in the rocks."

They looked left and right, the two paths they could go. Link said, "Let's try left first."

They began running through the various corridors and paths that met up with them. Few enemies were hiding around corners, all were easily dispatched with Mega Man's long range weapon. They came across many dead ends and alternate paths which also led to dead ends. Mega Man kept a constantly updating picture in his head of the paths they had taken and those they skipped, so they never repeated paths, taking a systematic approach to exploration. Still they were doing a lot of back tracking and crossing through paths they had been through before.

"Are we going around in circles?" Link asked

"No, I'm sure of it, we're still exploring the maze."

"This seems to go on forever. It seems like they're changing the maze on us."

"We're still on the same path. Nothing's run into each other. Nothing's in error with the map," Mega Man reassured them. If the maze was changing, some data would have come into conflict.

They continued down the corridors and hallways, losing more and more time. This was truly an excellent hindrance to those trying to find the center of the moblin's hideout. Obviously, the moblins knew what route they had to take. But the maze was so vast, a wandering human would easily be trapped in this labyrinth.

As they turned a corner they reached yet another dead end. Link started to turn around again, but Mega Man stopped him.

"Wait, there's something different about this. The wall is slightly discolored."

Link turned back around and saw that he was right. This wall was part of the large cavern, not one of the maze walls. It wasn't apparent to someone not paying attention, but the rock was a slightly grayer shade of brown than the rest of it. The staining only reached as far as the height of the maze, not above to the domed cavern ceiling. Mega Man and Link moved closer to it.

"There's nothing else very unusual about the wall," Mega Man said.

"Here," Link pointed down to a small corner near the floor. There was an etching carved into the stone of dots with straight horizontal lines running through them. The dots were placed along the different lines in an indiscernible pattern.

"What is it? It must mean something," Link said.

Mega Man analyzed the picture as well as he could. Link touched the carving as if he could receive some sort of message from contact. The picture could have been some sort of writing, something like Hylian script, but he had no idea how anyone could make any sense out of a language with dots and lines.

"I've got it," Mega Man declared. "It's music. It's written music. A, D, B, A, D, B."

Link looked at Mega Man and blinked.

"I guess you might read music differently here. It's three notes repeated. Try playing it."

Link pulled out his flute from his backpack and looked at the notes. Clumsily trying to find the right finger-holes, Mega Man guided him, telling him which notes were which. Link then played what he saw on the wall. The brief song sounded firm, but a little forlorn, almost mystical.

Link heard a telepathic voice in his head. _You have proven your connection to the royal family of Hyrule. Enter._

The wall began to rumble at the markings, and shifted upwards. It revealed a hidden passage into a room left forgotten in time, dark and foreboding, lighted by one standing torch near the door. Other unlit ones were placed sporadically throughout the room against the wall. In fact, each torch was near a tapestry and in front of each tapestry was a lengthy tome resting on a podium. The two walked in, not thinking that this could be the way into the moblin's lair. They hadn't the capability to speak, let alone create a musical passcode, so this was some sort of secret room, probably unknown to the moblins as well.

Link approached the wall lighted by the torch, and the illuminated picture was a painted outline of a great castle with rays of light shining from it, along with a village down below with cows, houses, and farm equipment. Below this was a silver tile with a downward triangle on it. Link touched it.

"Hello. If you are hearing this message, then you must be the Hero of Destiny."

"It's a telepathic tile," Link said.

"No," Mega Man said as he came up to Link. "I hear it too. It's some sort of recording."

The disembodied voice continued. "This also means you've found the last legacy I can leave behind. The gift of truth. These tomes describe the adventures of the hero and the carriers of his legacy. The land you exist on currently was once called Hyrule, who knows what it may be now. It existed as a beacon of all that was light and good until a dark man found the Triforce of Power and his evil covered the land. The prophecies of old came true - a hero emerged from the unlikeliest of places and sealed the evil in the Sacred Realm. However in order to defeat the evil, the hero needed to manipulate the threads of time, and this created a disruption in the flow of prophecy, a flaw in the strands. As a result of the disruption and the power of the Triforce, the dark man was allowed to exist beyond the span of normal time and space, perhaps being able to exist forever. There was little that could be done about it except this: two people chosen by fate would take up the opposing roles of the Triforce. These people would be known by their names and the crests of the Triforce on their hands. Every time the force of evil would rise again to unbalance the furies, the legendary hero would appear and return the world to order. The dark man, the keeper of the Triforce of Power, was known as Ganondorf. The keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom, whose blood would always be part of the royal line, was known as Zelda. And the keeper of the Triforce of Courage was..."

The torch in front of the picture blinked out and the one across the way sparked to life, illuminating the next picture. The two shuffled over and found a picture of a young boy clad in green, one that looked exactly like...

"You, Link."

Link felt a strange sensation on the back of his left hand and held it up. The symbol of the Triforce glowed dimly with the bottom left triangle shining over the others.

 **Next Chapter: The Triforce of Unity**


	30. The Triforce of Unity

Link suddenly had a sinking feeling in his gut as the voice droned on about prophecies, legends, and such. The feeling that that he was as small as an ant. The feeling that he was trapped in something much bigger than he was. They had moved onto the next picture, which showed Link pulling out a sword from a pedestal in a temple. Mega Man had perused the first few pages of the books on the pedestals - "The Hero of Winds", "The Hero of Masks", and so on.

"Ganondorf was from a race of thieves who lived far away in the desert, known as the Gerudo. Only one male is born to them every hundred years, who then becomes the Gerudo king. This king turned out to have the blackest heart of all. He manipulated the king of Hyrule and stole the three spiritual stones from their keepers, the allies of Hyrule's kingdom, the leaders of the Kokiri, the Zora, and the Gorons."

"No," Link responded. "The Zora were never peaceful, and I've never heard of the Kokiri or Gorons."

"The three stones opened the Temple of Time, where the Hero of Time withdrew the Master Sword to fight the evil of Ganondorf. In doing so, he unwittingly opened the door to the Sacred Realm, where Ganondorf used his sorcerer powers to obtain the Triforce. However, the dark man could not hold onto the Triforce, for the balance in his heart shifted to the side of power. This was the piece he kept and used to enslave Hyrule. The other two pieces were bestowed on those chosen by fate to defeat Ganondorf, not existing physically, but in their hearts."

"This is ridiculous," Link interrupted as the voice continued unabated in the background, "Ganondorf was leader of a gang of thieves that accidentally opened a portal to the GOLDEN LAND where the Triforce was. He killed his members and used the Triforce to take over the land. And the master sword was forged during that time, not before it."

"Some legends get distorted over time," Mega Man said.

The voice continued, "The Hero of Time was yet too young to defeat Ganondorf in his powerful form, so the sage of light forced him to sleep for seven years. During that time, Hyrule became a dark place."

"What? What kind of plan is that? How could they do that? Just let Hyrule go to waste?" Link exclaimed, suddenly trying to figure out who 'they' were. The current torch extinguished, and the next one lit, leading them around the corner to a tapestry of seven diverse characters casting beams of light around a fallen monster, with the green-clad hero standing next to him.

"Once Link came of age, he sought the power of the seven sages and used them to seal Ganondorf into the Sacred Realm. Hyrule returned to peace once again. However, in order to gain the power of the seven sages, he was required to travel back and forth through time, creating rifts in the tapestry of fate. When Ganon was defeated, Zelda sent Link back to his own time, seven years before the battle. No one can explain exactly how, but this enabled the trapped keeper of the Triforce of Power to survive unbound by natural laws of death. There was little we could do about it, except this: whenever the evil rose, the two chosen by fate would appear. And so this would continue. This is the legacy."

Link reasoned, "No, Ganon tried to attack the Hyrule Castle with his army and the seven knights of Hyrule and the seven wise men fought The Imprisoning War. And there was a seal. The seal has always been intact. Hasn't it?"

Mega Man shrugged.

The next picture lit up. The voice said, "The hero went onto other adventures and met many others. His tale became a legend. Then the evil came back again, and again, and again. Each time, the land of Hyrule fell into dark times, and each time, a hero has emerged to defeat the evil and send Hyrule back to a time of prosperity."

"It is true," Mega Man said as he pointed. The picture showed a great sea dotted with tiny islands - the land of Hyrule covered by water. "What Captain Horatio said."

"No, it... it can't be," Link said. "This is not the way that it happened."

The voice continued unabated. "These pictures and their correlating volumes depict the extent of your legacy in detail. This is the last bit of knowledge I can impart unto you, the knowledge of your legend. There is no knowledge that is not power, so I can only hope that you use it to your advantage. I know not of the infinitesimal possibilities of the future since my time here. I can only hope that good shall reign and prosperity flourish. Live well, Link. May the way of the hero lead to the Triforce."

The voice became silent. Link and Mega Man kept their ears perked up, waiting for more, but none came.

"Hey, you're not done yet! You've got more explaining to do. Hey!" Link shouted angrily at the darkness. He looked at Mega Man for some sort of guidance, some way to bring the voice back, but he could say nothing.

"This..." Link paced a circle around the room, holding his arm out to the legend in pictures. "This can't be. My life isn't a mistake," he laughed. "It's impossible, I can't... I can't keep coming back for generation after generation and not even know about it. That's impossible. I'm supposed to be part of the Knights of Hyrule bloodline, not the knights!"

"Nothing's impossible, not from what I've seen," Mega Man said.

"There's no... there's no..." Link stared at the back of his hand where the Triforce was, remembering the glow that had faded. "He even knew what my name would be. How many of me could there have been? How many times has this happened?" Link reached up and touched the tapestry showing his cartoonish etching, holding up his sword. "I'm... going to be doing this forever? Forever? Even after I die? I'll still be suffering, constantly having to fight, constantly having to destroy monsters and battling through temples and dungeons and wandering all over Hyrule and never getting to rest. Even after I die, I'll still be doing this. I'll never be able to stop!"

He wound up and hit the picture in the face hard. Breathing heavily, he gasped, "Why? Why me? What did I do? And Zelda!" Link returned to the center of the room, staring up at the ceiling to the invisible form responsible for all this. "Why do we have to pay for your mistake?" he screamed to no one. He received no answer for his pain.

Silence.

Link thought of how much he just wanted to quit. He was doing this all to achieve a goal that he believed could be accomplished. Now that he found out it could never be, he felt all hope draining away from him. He thought about just putting up his sword and letting evil take over the world, because maybe that's what was meant to happen. If it could survive beyond death it was clearly too powerful for a little guy like him to overcome.

Mega Man came over to Link and put a hand on his shoulder. "As strange as this sounds, I understand."

"No you don't. I'm going to be defeating Ganon over and over and over for all of time. I'll never be able to just take a rest and be able to look to the future and know that it's secured."

"Actually, I do know. Back in my world, there is a great robot scientist named Dr. Wily who uses robots to take over factories, science centers, power plants, important structures. He always engineers eight. I always have to defeat them before I can take care of Wily. And he is always able to come back. Again and again. He's done it six times, and he's always used the same method every time. If I were a human, I would think it would be very frustrating, and after a while I would wonder if there was even a point, since I would never be able to defeat him for one final time." Mega Man stepped away and stared at the poster of a dragon ship on the sea. "The work is never done, it's just a constant cycle that keeps going and going. But trying to figure out why will just make you go insane."

Mega Man saw the waning hope in his eyes and turned back to Link, opening up his hands, trying to appeal to him.

"You just have to keep pushing against the pushers, or the wall between is going to fall and crush you. The cost of peace is eternal vigilance, you always have to be ready and watching for when the next malevolent is going to rear its ugly head. It's the reason why I do the things I do."

Link looked at the first picture of Hyrule castle, bathed in bright light, looking noble and virtuous. "Did you ever find peace?" Link asked.

"I don't know. Every time I think I do, it falls apart and he comes back. It's a cycle. Evil will always exist, but so will good. If I have to be the one to ensure that justice exists, to make that sacrifice, then so be it. It's not fair, but then, neither am I."

Link looked strangely at Mega Man, not understanding what he meant.

"I mean," he continued, "I was created with abilities beyond others around me, even in terms of other robots. They may make them bigger and better, with different abilities, but I still have that special something that keeps me on top even after all these years. I don't know what it is, even my creator doesn't know. If I didn't use those abilities to help others, I wouldn't deserve them. I wouldn't have the right to keep them."

Link looked at the empty back of his hand, almost seeing the effervescent glow of the Triforce, the mark of the hero. "Almost like you were chosen..." Link thought back to all the events over the course of his life, remembering all the good times and bad times, when he was happy, when he was sad, angry, surprised, disgusted, afraid. It was more than most people ever experienced in their entire lives. All of it may have been engineered, but it was engineered for a good reason, and he was the one that could do it.

"You know why I do the things I do?" He looked back up at Mega Man and smiled. "Because of people like you."

Mega Man smiled.

"Let's go. We've got a Triforce to find."

Mega Man and Link exited the historical archive. Link briefly wondered whether he should let others know that this place exists or whether to let Zelda and the others live without the burden of such knowledge. This was not the time for that decision though, more pressing matters were at hand.

Mega Man reaccessed his map and led them to the path not taken. Soon they found themselves outside the maze and ready to head into the next level. Link withdrew his sword, ready for anything. He kicked the door open and rushed in.

Gleaming metal spikes lined the walls of this L-shaped room. Three Armos Knights were standing on the blue tiled floor. The big ones. They stood solid like statues, holding a thick harpoon in one hand and a thatched shield in the other, completely encased in metal armor. "Don't touch them," Link said, "They might-"

The statues rumbled and shook like a tremor, springing to life.

"Activate."

They had to have been sight activated, Link thought as he grabbed Mega Man and pulled him to the side. The knights began bouncing toward the two in perfect unison. They lowered their spears, as if ready to joust, with a metallic shink.

"Split up," Link said. Mega Man went left, Link went right. The knights began pursuing Mega Man exclusively.

"What do I do?" Mega Man yelped. "Are there any vulnerabilities?"

"They're made of metal. Try reasoning with them," Link shouted acerbically, as he backed away, getting his bow ready to help out.

Suddenly, he heard a magical shimmer in his ear and a presence behind him. He turned around and found a man cloaked in lime green with a cone-shaped hat shading his face, except for his glowing yellow eyes. Its hands were raised in the air, sparkling with electricity.

"Wizzrobes!" Link shouted as he dived out of the way.

The wizzrobe thrust its hands forward and a wave of blue energy shot out. Link spun around and fired his readied bow, but the wizard had already disappeared. They didn't call them masters of movement for nothing.

"Mega Man, keep on your toes, there's wizzrobes here!"

"What's a wizzrobe?" Mega Man asked as he fired his plasma cannon at the knights. The plasma was shooting cleanly through their metal armor, but their hollow shells kept coming, regardless of looking like Swiss cheese.

"They're black wizards that shoot magic beams. They disappear and reappear randomly, so watch your..."

Two wizzrobes faded into the area, surrounding Link, building up power in their arms.

"...back?"

Mega Man fired rapidly at the knights, cutting them apart. But nothing was working. Mega Man looked behind him just before he realized the spikes were about to turn him into robot-kabob. The knights leveled their spears at him.

"You like pointy things. Meet some!" Mega Man dived through a hole he had created in the center of the middle knight, and rolled to a stop. He quickly stood up and shoved him into the spikes. The impaled knight disappeared in a puff of smoke. Without hesitation, Mega Man grabbed the other two before they could turn around and shoved them into the spears with the horrendous screeching of metal. They vanished into oblivion.

Link rolled away towards the wall as the wizzrobes fired their shots. He stopped just short of running into the spines jutting out from the walls. Link scrambled to his feet and turned around, but the wizzrobes were already fading away.

"Dammit," Link exclaimed.

Mega Man switched visual acuities at a rapid pace, figuring the wizzrobes were simply cloaked, none of his sensors were registering anything, meaning it was purely magic. He switched back to normal vision.

"Behind you!" Link shouted.

Mega Man spun around and saw a shadowed face staring into him with his glowing eyes. It immediately vanished as an arrow hit it.

"That was close," Mega Man said.

"There's still one more-"

"Behind you," Mega Man shouted. He leveled his arm cannon and fired a gleaming yellow blob behind Link's head. Link ducked as the plasma shot hit the wizzrobe square in the face. He stumbled back from surprise and fell into the spikes, disappearing.

"Thanks," Link said.

The exit door opened, sensing no more evil magic in the room. Link gestured to him to follow. Mega Man ran after him, thinking it odd that despite his firing at Link's head, there were no sorts of warnings that activated that he was about to harm a human. Granted, he had never done anything to warrant such an alert, so he wouldn't know what it would look like when it happened. But if Link hadn't ducked, he would have harmed him, and his system couldn't have known what he would do. Maybe it predicted actions based on previous experience. This wasn't the time to figure it out though.

They traveled through twists and turns in the temple, winding up on a bridge over an endless chasm. Two rows of several large blocks were barricading their way. They could look over the tops of them and saw they were placed in a vague herringbone formation. Moblins were scrambling around the bridge, panicking once the heroes had entered. This told them that they were on the right track. Link fired his bow at some of the ones lagging behind, eliminating them from harm's way. The others skipped into the door on the other side of the blocks.

"We have to push these just right," Link said. "You can only push them once before they lock. I've seen this before."

Mega Man ran a quick program, analyzing the best way to push the blocks to give them an open path without blocking anything. "Here, push that one," he pointed to the upper left block. Mega Man helped him pushing the heavy tile forward. They felt it lock into place, immovable again. "Now this one." They continued pushing blocks until an open path appeared before them. Running to the end of the bridge they entered a dimly lit room with two torches on either side. Link took out his lantern and flared it up to the light the torches.

"Wow, you've got something for everything," Mega Man commented.

"It pays to be prepared."

Suddenly, a laser beam penetrated between them, leaving a scorch mark. The two fell back apart from each other and dove for cover. Two barricades were set up a little ways away, Mega Man took cover under one, while Link scrambled for the other. "Beamos!" the hero shouted. "They fire lasers at you when they see you." Mega Man peeked out from the barricade and saw three emerald green sculptures that looked like an octopus on a pedestal in a row at the other end of the room. Their tops had a small cannon that was rotating at the same rate in the same alignment. The rightmost cannon lined up with Mega Man and fired a red beam. The robot ducked just in time as the ray passed over his head.

"We'll never get through three of them unharmed." Link shouted.

"It's a line-to-sight security laser," Mega Man said. "We have to curve around them. Once we pass over the sight, we'll be fine."

"Cause a distraction?"

"Exactly."

Mega Man jumped out from the barricade and jumped around. "Hey, look at me! Look at me! Over here! Can't get me!" he jumped around while Link diagonally crossed over to the next barricade.

"Hmm," Mega Man thought. He charged up a Mega Buster shot to its highest level, popped out from the barricade and quickly shot the middle statue. The rotating cannon exploded clean off. Link smiled as the smoking statue laid at rest, satisfying his urge to defeat those cursed things. Mega Man charged his blaster two more times and defeated the other two beamos when their cannons were turned away. "Piece of cake," he said.

"Brute force and brains - the lethal combination."

They meandered around the defunct security guards and approached the next door. Link noticed the adjacent floor tiles were discolored, painted with the image of a horned skull, like an evil doormat.

"I know I've said this before," Link uttered, still looking down at the design, "But keep on your toes. I have a feeling something bad's about to happen."

Mega Man nodded and opened the door. They found themselves in an empty circular room with no discernable exit. They walked in, looking up and down for something that would solve the puzzle of this room. The door shut behind them, locking in place. They turned around startled. Mega Man was worried, but Link knew what was going on.

"Something's gonna happen," he said. "There wouldn't be an automatic lock without some way to get out." And Link knew from experience that some way didn't come without trouble.

They continued further into the room. The eerie silence felt like a heavy blanket about to smother them.

"It's quiet. Too quiet," Mega Man said. He looked up to the dark ceiling above, hiding the unknown.

"Above!" Link shouted as he headed into the center of the room. Mega Man followed him as he saw two shapes coming down at them.

Two giant piles of bones collected at opposite ends of the room, along with a sword and a shield for each of them. Mega Man's eyebrows furrowed in curiosity, as it seemed their enemies had already been defeated for them. Link, though, pulled out his sword and shield. "Stalfos, great."

Mega Man was amazed as the pile of bones in front of him spontaneously connected its ends together. The skeletal hand grabbed onto the blood red sword sitting in the pile. Its shoulder pads and helmet floated to their places as the formed body of an giant undead warrior with glowing red eyes rose from its mismatched parts. It stood nearly twice the size of either of them.

"One for each of us," Mega Man said.

"I waste no time, only Stalfos!" Link leapt forward and attacked the skeleton warrior. He blocked each of Link's furious blows with his shield, the echoes of metal on metal sounded throughout the room.

They also came from Mega Man who attempted to blast the enemy with plasma shots. The warrior simply jumped from side to side, dodging the blasts.

"Nimble little thing, aren't you?"

The skeleton lunged forward with a vertical chop of his sword. Mega Man barely scampered out of the way in time. He kicked at the skeleton's leg. The femur shot out, toppling the skeleton over into a bag of bones. "That was pretty easy."

Mega Man turned back to Link, who was defending and parrying with his opponent. "Need some help?"

Link leaned back to Mega Man, seeing what he was talking about, while still keeping his Stalfos in the corner of his eye. "No... you need... bomb..." he managed between thrusts.

"What?" Mega Man said, unbeknownst to him, as the Stalfos reassembled himself and overshadowed Mega Man. The robot turned around as he saw the dark shape. He shouted in surprise as another sword came crashing down. He dodged just in time. Mega Man thrust out with rapid-fire fists, but the skeleton warrior blocked with his shield.

Link's sword clanged against the skeleton's shield with tremendous force. The red-eyed giant dodged and blocked the incoming attacks. Link realized the direct approach was having no effect for this skilled swordsman and put up his sword. The skeleton darted back and forth getting ready for another blow. Seeing there was none, he hopped in the air and lunged forward. Link cut away and slashed him in the side, making him utter a low groan. Link continued trying to bait him into attacking.

Mega Man continued pounding with his fists of fury, causing dents in the shield but no hits on his foe. "Screw this," Mega Man said, getting impatient. He clamped his hands on the sides of the circle shield and yanked, tearing it away, along with a hand that was still attached. He flung the shield at the Stalfos neck, decapitating him. His skull flopped to the floor, lifeless. Without his head, he fell apart into a pile of bones.

"Link, a bomb!"

Link, hearing the call, quickly dug into his bag, pulled the fuse to light it, and tossed it behind him, keeping his eyes on his enemy. Mega Man caught the explosive and set it in the pile of bones, that were beginning to shake to life. Mega Man jumped out of the way and the bomb exploded mightily, sending fragments and shards and dust flying every which way. Mega Man shielded his eyes from the blast.

Link was systematically cutting his opponent down to size. He cartwheeled to the side as the Stalfos thrust forward. With magic power gathered in his blade he performed a spin attack on the Stalfos' skull, the crushing blow. The monster fell apart and his bones vaporized into puffs of blue flame.

"Good, now-"

Suddenly, the floor below them opened up in an iris too quick to escape from. The jarring ground knocked both of them off their feet and they tumbled into the pit, screaming.

The fall was short though. They landed on a dirt floor, something that immediately reminded them of a basement. As Mega Man rubbed the back of his head, and Link pulled his crumpled hazy form up from the fall, they looked at their surroundings. They were in what looked like a room for a magician or alchemist. An exit door stood behind them. The stone walls had spare shelves of flasks and candles. A wooden table rested at a strange angle near the corner of the room. Several crates were stacked in another corner. It looked like someone intelligent had been using this room.

"Look," Mega Man pointed.

Link opened his eyes and saw a table in the middle of the room with a golden triangle on it. "It can't be..." Link mumbled. The triangle was not floating on the table, but resting face-up, a little over the edge. It was colored deeply gold, a little darker than the other pieces. Link stood up and approached it, wondering if he even should, whether he should contact the princess or other authorities. Cautiously, he picked it up, holding it in both hands. He stared deeply into his reflection in the metal, tilting it up and down.

"It's... something's wrong. I'm not getting anything from it." He looked up at Mega Man. "I think it's fake."

The image of a sinister man faded into the Triforce's surface, looking like a reflection in itself.

"Very astute, boy," he said.

Link was looking into the face of Ganondorf.

 **Next Chapter: Ganondorf**


	31. Ganondorf

Link almost dropped the Triforce piece in surprise. Even though he had never seen him before, the man in the reflection was recognizable. Link knew him from his eyes, those dark, foreboding eyes, pock-marked with the blaze of the sun, glaring with the hatred of a thousand years. The same eyes as Agahnim, his alter ego. His long pointed nose made him look like a carrion bird. His head was crested with a dark orange jewel encrusted with silver. His flaming red hair contrasted with his dark olive-colored skin, tapering down to his scowling eyebrows, looking daggers at Link.

"That's right... you recognize me," he nodded, "Your generation knew me as Agahnim, the dark wizard."

"It can't be, I killed you. How are you doing this?" Link asked the piece of Triforce.

"Don't play dumb with me, boy. I've been watching you, you already know the truth," he laughed.

"I saw you," Link said, "I followed you down to the temple of the Triforce in the Dark World. I slayed you with my own hand."

"Haven't you learned anything, boy? I am a legend. I am infinite. I am ageless. I am the incarnation of power. How could a mortal like you expect to kill me?"

"Then it is true," Link said dejectedly. The last element of certainty locked into place. The fighting across generations, forced to be reincarnated over and over again, inexorably intertwined to two other people. "Then you've been behind all this from the beginning. How?"

"My abilities extend far beyond the reaches of space and time. They are limitless. I need no body to execute my desires."

"You designed this entire plot. You were behind the existence of the moblins."

"My creation. As vicious as the dogs they are modeled after."

"Just to lead me down here. Then there is no fourth piece of the Triforce. It was all just a hoax."

"Indeed," the Gerudo said.

"Why?"

"Don't you see? We are invariably linked... Link. The three of us. We are the three chosen ones, destined to live beyond the abilities of mere mortals. We have a legend most men dream about and can never hope to achieve. We are the personifications of the Triforce. I with power, Zelda with wisdom. You are the bridge between those two. You are the missing key to it all. The link to the past. You tread the fine line between good and evil.

"What the others don't realize is that there is no line. It's all one gray area. Good and evil do not exist. It's every man for himself out there. Everyone has to follow what's in their heart and in their mind. Do you know why Hyrule has been in such strife for so many years? Why it has remained in such a archaic state for so many millennia."

Link shook his head no.

"Because they are not united. They live in small villages in houses, barely in touch with the others. They live on farms, afraid to go out beyond their territory for fear of the next thief seeking to slit their throat. Without unity, they live in squalor, without ambition or self-improvement. These are the people who you've defended. Look at your friend there."

Link slowly turned to Mega Man, feeling disconcerted that Ganondorf knew about him.

"We should have achieved ten times the advancements that he has in all the time this land has existed. A mechanical man. Ingenious innovation. It took many unified people over the course of time to make that. And they did it."

Mega Man shrugged, "It's true." Many people researching and slaving away over computer screens and sautering irons worked to see a creation like himself come alive.

"The same goes for us, Link," the man in the mirror said.

Link turned back to him as he continued.

"We are disjointed. You and I are a Triforce without the other two pieces. We lack solidarity. But think of what we could achieve when we were united with a single purpose. The leaders of Hyrule - Zelda, you, and I - finally brought together with a common goal." Ganondorf raised his fist within the mirror to emphasize his point. "Think of the feudal suffering you've had to endure. Think of the meagerness of your life and everyone else's. It would all be ended by this. Now think of the things we could accomplish, Link. Think of the possibilities. I can see a world where we three stand in Hyrule palace, with all the Hylian people united under our leadership. Crime, starvation, disease, war, fear, all a thing of the past. Cities where people come together and work together reach to the sky. It will be glorious. It will be legendary."

Link stared at Ganondorf's grinning form in the mirror. He looked back to Mega Man who was standing idle, looking at his blue tempered armor, his child-like face framed by his form-fitting helmet. This was not his fight. He could not make the decision for him. He thought of what Ganondorf had said about his robotic friend, that they could reach that level someday. To have good people around making other good people. The way Mega Man described his world, it sounded like a utopia, where people helped each other, where they depended on each other and lifted everyone on their shoulders to the stars. He thought back to his life, all of it. He remembered all of the suffering he'd have to endure. All the trials and tribulations, the separation from the rest of the world, not quite royal, not quite a peasant. He remembered all the adventures he'd had and all the new people he'd met. And he thought of the room he'd just seen, detailing his legend in full - the good and the bad of it.

"Well, what do you say?" Ganondorf repeated.

Link turned slowly back to the golden triangle in his hand. "I say no."

"No! What's the matter, boy. Have you no ambition?"

Link responded audaciously. "That's why you always lose, Ganondorf, you have too much ambition. You don't want to unify Hyrule, you want to conquer it."

"I want a better Hyrule!"

"You want power! Don't you know how many people would be harmed by your tyranny. They'd be unified under fear of you. Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely. That's what we've learned from the Triforce. All those who sought it to use it for its omnipotence fell into darkness. Just like you. The Triforce is a symbol of what we can become if we all work together. But not for our own ends. For the good of everyone."

"You need me, boy. You cannot exist without me. The prophecies have decreed it. Just like the Triforce is powerless without its two counterparts."

"I don't know, I seem to be just fine," Link said impetuously.

Inside the reflection, Ganondorf fumed. His jewel on his forehead seemed to glow in proportion to his rage. "You pathetic little fool! You or Zelda don't exist without me. We are forever linked, don't you realize that? You and her will be locked in a constant state of suffering as long as we are separated, to live and die over and over again, forced to find each other over and over again. I will continue long after you are dead, and I will rule the world long after you're dead and cold in the ground. I will permeate Hyrule with my power until it seeps out of the earth. You dare refuse my offer. Do you know who I am? I am Ganondorf Dragmire. I am the ultimate sorcerer of the world. I am a legend."

"A legend trapped in a tiny mirror," Link smiled.

Ganondorf looked like he was about to scream with unbridled anger in a second. Then it seemed as if a wave of calmness washed over him and returned him to a composed demeanor.

"You are useless," he spoke. "You will be caught in a constant cycle of suffering until the end of time. You are nothing more than a puppet of fate, doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past until eternity ends. Goodbye, Link. I hope you had a nice life."

"Link, look out!" Mega Man shouted.

The triangle gleamed in Link's hands. Mega Man jumped forward and plucked the false Triforce piece out of his hands before Link had time to react. The triangle's edges suddenly ejected sharp razor blades, cutting into Mega Man's hand, tearing the skin of his glove. He dropped the triangle on the pedestal where they found it.

"AAAAARRRRGH! CURSE YOU, LINK!" Ganondorf swore.

"How did you know it was going to do that?" Link asked Mega Man.

"I... I don't know. I just saw it coming. I saw something around it resonating."

"Heh, heh. Magic," Link said, pointing a finger upward, knowing he was finally adapting the world he lived in. Link and Mega Man leaned over the triangle, which had retracted it's blades as the figure in the mirror muttered loudly.

"You prying little wretch," he said to Mega Man. "You're not even supposed to be here! These are not your matters."

"I'm making them my matters," Mega Man said.

"This is not your world. You cannot survive here much longer. Despite all your advancements you can still fall to a sharpened blade just as the rest of us. In your world you may be mighty, but here you are just as helpless as a kitten. But I have the power to send you back to your own time. I know your friends are suffering."

"You don't know that, there's no way you could know that."

"They suffer without you. You must get back there immediately. I have the power to make it happen. I have the ability to open portals to other dimensions. All you need to do is put three drops of Link's blood on this pedestal."

"No deal, Ganondorf. I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. The laws of robotics prevent me from harming a human."

"You stupid mechanical man. You do what I say, or you'll never get back to your own world."

"Even if I thought I could get back home, I wouldn't like who I have to thank."

"Hey," Link piped up, "What's the deal here?"

"You ignorant fool. You don't know your own past, you don't know your own future. Look on this blasted pedestal, do you see anything? These are the ashes of the body of Ganon. By sprinkling your blood on these ashes I can live again. I will be resurrected."

Link and Mega Man scrutinized at the pedestal. Sure enough, what he thought was just dust were ashes.

"But again, you can't seem to accept your fate. It is power that's destined to take this land over. Courage and wisdom are useless, but power is where all potential is derived."

"You talk too much," Mega Man said. Link laughed uproariously at his friend's precociousness.

"No matter. Whether by myself or others, I will have my revenge. I will see the light of Hyrule again."

They heard the door behind them open and saw that the old woman was standing in front of the now locked door. The same one who had betrayed Link in the temple.

"You!" Link said, stepping closer in battle readiness. The old woman's cloak was covering her eyes and she smiled sadistically.

"Yes, Link," Ganondorf's voice came from behind. "I will exist again. Long after you are dead. If I have to lay waste to this land, I will have it. If I have to wait until the end of the world. If I have to rip my own soul out of my chest, I will have it."

The woman put her hand under her neck, like she was preparing to scratch it. She gripped the thin wrinkly skin and pulled upward. The face and cloak tore away and fell at the floor. From the costume emerged the tall form of Ganondorf in the flesh... but not quite flesh. His skin was gray and translucent. He wore a black armored tunic adorned with golden rivets. Two spiraling horns jutted out of his head and his eyes glowed with an ethereal yellow empty gaze, his lower face cloaked from his raised collar. He held a large three-pronged harpoon behind him with battle readiness.

"Remember, Link," Ganondorf said as the phantom floated up above the ground with a whooshing noise. "A legend is someone who becomes immortal by being dead."

 **Next Chapter: Reflection**


	32. Reflection

"Oh, boy," Mega Man said.

The hulking Phantom Ganon floated above the ground with a magical whooshing noise, his long black cape swishing behind him as he spun his long trident in his arms. He held up his hand in the air and particles of yellow energy began forming above his head, morphing into a globe of force With a grunt, he threw the lightning ball at the two heroes.

"Run!" Link shouted. The two split up just as the energy exploded where they had once been standing. Mega Man tumbled to the side and activated his arm cannon. He fired three plasma shots at the floating phantom. The plasma shots flew through the air and with a clink bounced off the creature's armor harmlessly.

A stunned Mega Man tried firing again but the shots hit with the pitiful sound of a hammer tapping metal and ricocheted off.

"That's impossible. The only substance that can reflect plasma is litanium," he said, remembering the various robots like met-tools that used it.

Ganondorf's voice laughed within its golden prison. "You see? You cannot defend yourselves against me. You are just as weak as your predecessors."

Mega Man glowed with energy as he charged up his Mega Buster to full blast. "Defend this," he said as he fired. The trailing sphere of blue plasma sailed through the air, direct and true at the phantom's head. He spun his spear in the air and smacked the plasma ball hard, reflecting it back to Mega Man. The speed of the shot was too quick to dodge. He absorbed the full impact of the blast and was thrown back against the wall.

"Mega Man, are you all right?" Link shouted from behind a table.

"Arrgh," he groaned as he checked his power levels, down to 25. "What sort of creature can do this?"

"It's a creature of magic," Link said from behind a table. "It can only be defeated by such."

The phantom turned his head to Link as he spoke, its lifeless yellow eyes tracking his movements.

"Oops," he said.

The phantom floated over to Link's body, swaying back and forth. He raised his trident, gathering magic blue energy in the tip and flung it at Link. Link readied his sword and sliced it through the incoming magic. The sword passed harmlessly through the formless force and collided with his body. Link was flung back against the wall, smoke wisping off his clothes.

"Ow," he said as he gathered himself.

Mega Man continued firing shots at the floating phantom, targeting different areas, each one rebounding off his impenetrable hide. "There must be a weak spot," he said.

"If only I had my Master Sword, I could reflect his shots," Link shouted above the din.

"Give up, you fools," Ganondorf shouted. "This creature is far stronger than anything you've ever faced before."

"I've apparently defeated it before too," Link quipped.

"Your predecessors had twice the brains you have. You'll never win, you pathetic puppet."

The phantom vaporized into a puff of black smoke. The two looked around curiously. "Where is he?" Mega Man said. Ganondorf simply laughed maniacally from his mirror.

Phantom Ganon winked into space behind Mega Man and speared him between two prongs of his trident, lifting him up over the ground. Mega Man shouted in surprise as he was lifted up over Ganon's head, whirled him around by the pole, and then slammed down on the ground. Link jumped into the fray to save him, holding his sword high above his head, but the phantom vanished again.

"Arrgh, how can we defeat something we can't see!" Link shouted.

"There's got to be a weak spot. There is always a weak spot." Wasn't there?

Link and Mega Man's head darted around, looking for where the phantom would show up as Ganondorf laughed maniacally in the background.

Suddenly, Link felt himself lifted up by the back of his neck and torn off the ground. Link dropped his sword and his hands immediately went to his closed off neck. Mega Man aimed his arm cannon at the phantom holding up Link, but he was moving too erratically to fire a clean shot.

"Put him down!" Mega Man shouted.

The phantom's response was to raise the hero higher in the air, bringing him closer to the pedestal with Ganon's ashes.

"You see, Link," Ganondorf said as he brought the boy over his reflective surface and his ashes. "You're nothing more than a pawn. You're strings are being pulled, you're being told what to do and how to think. You have no choices in life, you are manipulated into the role you're playing. You are a worthless puppet of fate."

Phantom Ganon brought the trident closer to Link's neck, the hooked prong ready to slit. Link managed to grip onto the phantom's weapon-holding wrist.

"I may be a puppet," Link said. "But it takes three to put on a show."

Link kicked out his feet, getting a hold on the pedestal, and pushed it over, spilling the triangle and Ganon's ashes on the floor.

"NOOOO!" Ganondorf shouted.

Link, still holding onto his wrist, tightened up his stomach and flipped over, loosening the phantom's grip. He kicked the monster in the face and darted to the ground, landing next to Mega Man. He helped himself up and stood by his compatriot.

"I don't care if I have to follow you to the end of time. I'll still be here, ready to take you down," he said as he picked up his sword.

"I'LL KILL YOU ALL!" Ganondorf screamed.

The phantom held the trident over his head. A great pool of dark purple energy swirled about as the monster churned the storm. Small tendrils of lightning spread out over it. A flurry of small globules came raining down on them from the black magic storm. Link and Mega Man scattered apart, trying to dodge the deadly rain.

The phantom floated closer to the two as his magic spell did his dirty work. Ganondorf laughed like crazy as Mega Man and Link scattered throughout the room, crawling on hands and knees through the dingy dungeon. Mega Man aimed his arm cannon and fired an idle plasma shot at the triangle. "Don't you ever shut up?"

The plasma shot reflected off the metal and flew upwards to the ceiling. The phantom hovering near the triangle flew back in surprise as the bullet sailed upwards in front of his face. Mega Man could tell he was startled in a fearsome way. Link saw it too, suspicious of the action.

"A moment to reflect?" Mega Man asked.

"But of course."

Link scrambled across the room and rolled over the remains of the spilled pedestal, picking up the idle shard as the magic rain thinned out. He stood up and held it in front of his chest with Ganondorf facing outward. Mega Man fired his plasma cannon at the triangle in an angle so that the shot ricocheted and hit the phantom. It absorbed into his body instead of bouncing off, but he still kept coming. Mega Man continued firing rapid shots, but they had no visible effect on him as he began rolling particles of black energy into his hand again.

Ganondorf laughed. "It's going to take a lot more than that to defeat my creation, ha ha ha!"

As Ganondorf laughed, Mega Man closed his eyes and withdrew into his internal system, diving around programs until he found and activated his weapon copy circuitry. The color of his armor washed to a solid gold, glistening in the candlelight. His arm cannon whirred as circuitry and wires switched and reconnected. On his indicator, the selected 'Triforce' glowed with a determined aura. Ganondorf stopped laughing as he sensed the immense power Mega Man was carrying.

"How convenient. I just happen to have a lot more than that."

Link stepped back, ready to brace himself should something go wrong. Mega Man raised his cannon, putting his other hand on his arm to steady himself.

Mega Man fired. There was a second delay as the weapon built up energy emitting a high-pitched whine. The barrel shot forth a giant beam of shining gold energy, sparkling like stars, massively crashing into the golden triangle. Ganondorf shouted in rage, overshadowed by the thrumming sound of the beam. It reflected off at an angle and struck the Phantom Ganon in the chest stopping it suddenly, frozen in air. Mega Man continued firing the beam into the triangle and off into the monster, beginning to feel the energy build-up of the beam reaching critical levels. Its power level was not draining as he fired. Link kept one foot behind himself to brace for the massive force pushing him back. The beam's power finally penetrated the monsters armor, spreading through his body like cracks, glowing yellow with power. It began shaking uncontrollably.

"No! No! NOOO!" Ganondorf yelled.

The Triforce Beam began causing fractures in Ganondorf's mirror, making horrible cracking sounds, white light permeating through. Mega Man pushed the last little bit of energy he could in and stopped firing, pulling back his arm. Link turned his head away just as the mirror shattered into a mighty explosion of millions of pieces. The phantom exploded with a magnificent blue fiery burst just like the mirror. White light bathed the room, and Link and Mega Man shielded their eyes they retreated back to the walls blinded.

The light subsided, but a low rumbling began within the walls. A faint humming sound could be heard. Mega Man looked where it was coming from and saw a great rotating circle sparkling black and gold, swelling like water, floating above the air where Link was holding Ganondorf's triangle. Both the phantom and the evil sorcerer's laughter were no more.

"Link?" Mega Man shouted.

"I'm here," Link said, brushing himself off. He looked at the glowing circle. "What is it?"

"It looks like... the same portal that brought me here." Link walked around it and stood looking at it with Mega Man. On a whim, Mega Man tried to establish a comm connection to Light's computer. To his surprise, the connection found a receiver. "It is! This is the way home," he said. "It must have been an effect of the Triforce beam and Ganondorf's magic."

"The Triforce works in mysterious ways," Link said.

A large rock fell to the ground near Link as the ground began shaking.

"You better get out of here, this place is about to fall apart." Link held out his hand to Mega Man. "No time for long goodbyes. It's been good working with you," he said.

Mega Man returned the handshake. "And it's been good working with you. Maybe someday we'll meet again."

"Maybe."

"I'll always remember you."

"And I won't forget you." Inside, Link's heart was breaking a little. He had finally made a friend who understood him, who he could fight alongside with, and he had to leave. Stones and boulders began raining around them, but the two friends were oblivious to the chaos. "Go ahead, go," Link said, urging him on with a nod of his head and a sad smile.

"Thanks for everything," Mega Man said. He leapt up and jumped into the portal. The circle bulged as it accepted Mega Man's body, then returned. He was gone.

Link sighed as he thought of all the experiences he had been on. He contemplated jumping into the portal after him for a brief moment, then thought better of it. He was needed here, in Hyrule. He also had a role to play

A large rock fell into the table, collapsing it in the middle with a thunderous boom, signaling it was time to leave. He turned his head to the ceiling, looking for any stones about to crush him. The ground was shaking tremendously now, it was taking concentration just to maintain his balance. The rocks were coming down so fast he now hastened to the door, skidding to a stop. He reached out for the handle.

Suddenly, he noticed a gathering shadow at the door's edge. He looked up and saw a pile of rocks about to come down on him. Just in time, he practically fell out of the way as the boulders piled up at the door, blocking his way out. Small pebbles bounced off the humongous stones. Link tried pulling one off but it was too heavy.

"Uh-oh," Link said as he jerked his head left and right, looking for another door. The severity of the collapse began to worsen, the room was about to cave in any second. And he had no way out.

Except the portal.

One of the support pillars at the wall tumbled down with a great crash. Link looked around desperately for another exit, a trap in the floor, a ladder in the ceiling, anything. The entire room had become a waiting death trap for him if he didn't move. He turned around and looked at the glowing circle.

"Oh, great. I hope this doesn't hurt."

With a shout, he bolted for the swirling vortex, dodging the raining boulders. Spreading his body out, he dived in headfirst. The portal swallowed him up, just as the gigantic ceiling of the cavern collapsed in on itself, burying the portal and all the room.  


* * *

 **END PART 1**


	33. Welcome Home

The laboratory was vacant, quiet, and still. Scattered items and boxes, bits of leftover technology, laid haphazardly on the ground, waiting to be cleaned up. Silver walls reflected the white ceiling light left on, after nobody had come to turn it off. No one was there to see the air particles shimmer in the middle of the room. Bright photons lit up like fireflies and gravitated toward a single spot in the space. A star like orb of luminescence grew and grew as the photons collected, until it collapsed into itself and opened up into a giant black and gold portal. The iridescent circle undulated like a body of water, and hummed like a generator increasing in velocity. Small tendrils of violet electricity danced along its surface.

The circle pulsated faster, like an organic heartbeat, as if it was going to vomit up something. When it also seemed like it was vibrating it spat out a blue-armored robot onto the floor. Gracefully he tumbled down and landed on one knee, his boots clinking against the metal floor.

Mega Man rose from his kneeling position as if he was being reborn. He looked around briefly, and upon recognizing his surroundings, was very glad to be back home. He turned around and the portal winked out like an eye just as he saw it. With the portal closed, he said a silent goodbye to Hyrule and his hero friend and turned back around. He wasn't without a little regret for leaving them behind, but they would do just as well without his presence. They had before. It was time he focus back on his own world.

Looking up at the chronometer, he found time had passed at the same rate in Hyrule as it did here. But he had arrived in a different room than he had left, which made Mega Man curious. With all the scientific variables that floated in the air from that strange teleportation device, he was surprised he made it back at all, and not embedded in the core of some planet. This was one of Dr. Light's labs in the basement, but not the same one he left from. The transportational device was nowhere to be seen. The door was not the same as what he had closed to destroy Elec Man. Did that mean he had come here without the help of the device? And it was a mess, like someone had torn through the place looking for something. If Wily's robots had made it down here, it wasn't to destroy, it was to untidy.

"Boy, you're gone for a few days and everything goes to pieces," he said to himself. The clutter around him did nothing to alleviate his fears about what had happened since he left. Any number of things could have happened in the days he was gone. Without Mega Man there to defend, Wily could have taken over the world in that short a time. He was surprised the doctor hadn't completely destroyed the mansion and all its residents, since that was what Mega Man thought his intention was when he barged in here with a mechanical tank and six robot masters. Dr. Light and Roll could be dead right now and he had been putzing around Hyrule all that time. He should never have waited as long as he did to get back. Ridiculous. But he couldn't compound that fear by standing there repenting. Now was the time for action. And he would never know what had happened if he stood there dumbly.

Though the room was a mess, the equipment was still in working order. It was just the free-floating properties that were damaged, mostly documents and some small tools and electronic boxes. He ran to the nearest computer console and started up the intranet utilities. The first thing he did was activate in-house communication.

"Dr. Light?" he spoke into the telecom. "Dr. Light?" While he called for his creator, he multi-tasked and brought up the tracking signals. It looked like there were no moving objects in the house - human or robot. It was completely deserted. A kidnapping, perhaps. Dr. Wily had done it before, that was likely his reason for invading his home. Even stranger, as he panned through household cameras, the building had been completely repaired. Had Wily even been there? Had Mega Man been transported back in time to before he left? A quick re-confirmation on the computer's time said that he wasn't. Time was flowing as smooth and steady as ever. There were definitely some events that he needed filling in on.

"Roll? Can you hear me?" he talked into the microphone. Nothing coming from the house. He tried an internal link with Roll as he had just before he left. "Roll, please come in." His link hung there in dead space, never getting an answer. "Roll! Roll!" he communicated over the wireless line. Nothing. The connection had terminated seeking. Something strange was definitely going on. Why would she be neglecting to communicate with him? Unless she was otherwise incapacitated. He couldn't bear the thought of her being kidnapped by Wily too, probably being reprogrammed or disassembled. Maybe put into Wily's robot army.

Something Mega Man couldn't put his finger on, but this seemed less and less like Wily's doing. If something had happened to Dr. Light, where would Roll be? Either looking for him or... somewhere else he couldn't deduce. Mega Man shook his head, there were too many unknowns to try and form a reasonable hypothesis. Despite these obstacles he was still optimistic, since he was now home. This was his environment and he had the control again. His next step was to get topside and find out what in the world had happened in his absence. He shut off the console and moved towards the door out.

No sooner had he done that than he felt a sensation on the top of his helmet. He looked back, aiming his arm cannon. The leftover debris on the floor shook and gave way to several small heli-robots hovering in a circle around him. They were shaped like blue pill bugs with needle-like snouts and scowling visual receptors.

"Mega Man detected. Program activated," they buzzed like a choir. It looked like Wily hadn't left without a calling card after all. A trap especially meant for him. One of them fired a red laser from its snout. Mega Man jumped out of the way as it harmlessly scorched the floor.

"Nice welcome party, but I'll pass," he sneered in the air and triggered his firing circuits. The plasma cannon sparked pitifully with an unpleasant defunct sound.

"What?" he exclaimed as he landed. Nothing came out. He tried firing again. Not even a sparkle this time, just another irritating buzzing noise, indicating that something was wrong.

The hover-bots began pelting him with laser shots. Mega Man hastily sped out of the way. The shots were poorly timed, but there were a lot of them to avoid as he ducked and weaved around the room.

As he did so, he performed a quick diagnostic on his Mega Buster. The cannon ran on internal energy, not like the copied weapons, so it should never have run out. That wasn't the problem here, though. It looked like the cannon was kaput. The test quickly revealed why - firing the Triforce beam had fried his circuits. The weapon slot the golden power had occupied had been rendered completely unusable. He'd never be able to fire that weapon again. Given its power, it was probably better that way. But if he didn't find Dr. Light to get repaired he'd never be able to fire _anything_ again.

Mega Man staggered away as a stray laser shot nearly hit him in the back. These pesky guards were going to be difficult to defeat if he didn't have his primary weapon. They were darting in and out as fast as hummingbirds, shooting their lasers and swooping to and fro to avoid being attacked. He had to avoid getting hit as much as possible due to his low level of power. But without his arm cannon, how would he do it? There had to be another way.

"I didn't travel halfway across dimensions just to get killed by a couple of bugs." He ran over to the cabinet side and grabbed hold of the industrial strength molding. In his vice-grip he easily tore it off the plating. Turning back to the bots he held the strip of metal out like a sword. "Let me show you some things I learned on my vacation."

He leapt up into the air and sliced downward. The bot split neatly in half, dropping to the ground. The others spread out to take its place and fill in the gap. Mega Man brandished his makeshift sword as he squatted down into a battle position. "It's definitely different without my buster," he commented. "But I'll make do."

He threw the sword into the air like a boomerang at the hover-bot to his right. It got caught in the propeller blades, tearing them like tinfoil. Without lift, the bot dropped like a rock, bursting into a yellow explosion on the ground.

The sword hit against the ceiling and dropped out of reach. The other six heli-bots were about to fire. Mega Man tipped up a fallen metal table and slid under it. The metal blocked the laser shots, fizzling them out on the titanium shield. Like the mindless drones they were, they kept firing, expecting to penetrate the shield, while Mega Man sat under it, planning what to do next.

"The best offense is a good defense," Mega Man quipped. He grabbed hold of the two table legs and swung the heavy board around like a bat, smashing two of the bots nearest the wall. The ruined bugs slid off the wall like their organic counterparts. Four to go.

Mega Man slipped the table over his back like a turtle as the assault continued. With the weight of the table boring down on him he trudged to the corner of the room where his sword had dropped as the malicious helicopters rained down fire. He set it down and cautiously reached out from his protection for the piece of metal. A red laser beam sparked near his hand, knocking the weapon away.

"Smarter than you seem," the android muttered. He picked up the table again and set it on its short side so Mega Man could stand behind it. The heli-bots flew up and surrounded him.

"Can't we just talk about this?"

The robots fired their lasers. Mega Man jumped up in the air, narrowly avoiding the explosion. The robot's turrets followed him in the air and fired at the apex of his leap. Mega Man tucked into a ball as the blasts flew over his head. As soon as he touched down he rolled back and grabbed his makeshift sword from the corner.

"Now, you really get to see what I learned."

He ran forward and slid, kicking the table out from above him. He ended on the opposite side of the room as the table crashed into another hoverbot, catching on its snout and then its rotors, sending it crashing to the ground. The remaining three fired at will, leaving Mega Man scattering in a circle to avoid the blasts. When he reached the end of the room he jumped on the wall cabinet and flew at the hover-bots.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion from there. He kicked off of the wall in such a way that he spun around like a top, holding his sword out, effectively becoming a weed whacker. The blade spun through the first hover-bot in a clean slice. The second one caught the molding in its helicopter blades, yanking it out of Mega Man's hand. It spun end over end like a meteor and crashed into the wall, crushing it.

Mega Man was about to crash headlong into the third and final hover bot, whose laser cannon was lit red, about to fire in his face. With lightning reflexes Mega Man reached out and grabbed the enemy out of the air, like plucking an apple.

The robot landed feet-first on the ground, holding the struggling helicopter in his hand with the laser end pointed clearly away from him. It wobbled back and forth like a child's toy struggling to be released. "Not as tough as you look." He turned it upside down and it fell sharply as the rotors propelled it downward. Mega Man smashed it under his boot.

"All right, that distraction's out of the way." Mega Man dusted himself off and exited the room, ready to find his two missing family members. The automatic sliding door opened readily for him and shut as soon as he was through, leaving the room behind him empty, with a little more junk in it than what he arrived to.

It was not empty for long though. Nearly a moment after Mega Man left, the shimmering portal materialized into the room again, astounding anyone who would have been in there. It throbbed violently once and out came a human clad in green, wearing a cap of the same color. The disorientation caused him to land hard on the white metal floor, nearly sending his teeth into his tongue as he lay on his stomach.

"Ugh," Link said, "That's not fun." He readjusted his cap as he stood up. Patting himself down he checked out all his parts. He felt frozen on the inside but burning on the outside. Like broken apart and put back together again. He wasn't sure all his components had made it through, but on a quick inspection, it looked like whatever he had on his person when he went through made it with him.

Once he had adjusted to feeling normal again, he looked around in wonderment, but not awe. It looked like he had ended up in a messy bathroom. He was expecting the tall buildings that were spoken to him and dozens of beings like Mega Man to be wandering around. This looked like some sort of fancy storeroom that hadn't been cleaned. Boxes and indiscernible items were strewn about the space. Link guessed if Mega Man wasn't human, maybe he didn't live like a human. Maybe he didn't bother with niceties like cleanliness, since they didn't care. Link turned over a box that was in his way.

Suddenly a blue globular object rose out what he had just kicked over. Link's eyes went wide as he stared at some sort of flying bug in the air with a long snout pointed at him.

"Destroy human," it buzzed.

 **Next Chapter: House Guest**


	34. House Guest

Link stared down the flying bug, but it returned a lifeless gaze, hovering in the air up and down. With a buzz, the snout shot a fine red laser beam at the human. Link instinctively turned away and the beam grazed his shoulder.

Link's eyes went wide with pain. He'd never felt any sort of burning like this before, ten times that of normal fire, and it wasn't even a direct hit. He grabbed his shoulder and ran out of the way.

"Wait, wait, I'm a friend," Link exclaimed. The menacing hoverbot followed him with the barrel of his blaster, keeping it neatly targeted on the scampering human. Link found a large object to duck behind and collect himself. He checked his shoulder and saw a bleeding red mark was drawn through the scorched clothing. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't about to be negotiated with.

The robot accelerated forward and turned to Link behind the box. Link narrowly dived out of the laser blast as it disintegrated the objects around him. Link's desperate flee mode turned to fight as he ran out of places to hide. He took his shield off his back and prepared to charge.

As soon as he moved forward the helicopter fired another shot. Link brought up his shield to block the blast. The laser burned a neat hole through the metal plating with wisps of smoke coming out. Link peeked on top of the armor, aghast at his penetrated protection. He turned back to the robot with anger in his eyes.

Rolling out of the line of fire, he grabbed the boomerang out of his pack and flung it with all his might at the attacker. The wooden weapon spun around and around and smacked against its side with a clang, doing little more than knocking it slightly off-course, which it immediately corrected. The boomerang flew back to his hand and Link dodged the subsequent blast, but the laser brushed against the lower part of his tunic, suddenly setting it ablaze.

Link shrieked in surprise, batting out the flames quickly. He jumped up and down, trying to keep being a moving target without spontaneously combusting. The flames left a black mark on his frayed clothing. While Link was distracted with this, the heli-bot fired again, making a direct hit on Link's leg.

"Arrgh!" Link shouted in agony. He dropped to one knee, struggling to stay upright, holding the muscle that had been wounded. His sword clanked to the ground at his side. It felt like a white-hot needle had just been jabbed into his thigh. Turning his gaze from his leg back up to the assailant, the bot continued staring at him behind those soulless scowling eyes. It whirred silently as it readjusted its turret, and Link knew that its next target was going to be his head.

The bot was suddenly encased in a purple energy wave that came from behind. The robot shuddered once and crumpled under the power, making it explode in a bright flash of yellow light. Link held his hand up to protect himself from the falling debris. When it cleared, he looked up to see what had happened.

Mega Man stood there in the doorway, holding a large canister with a purple end, glowing in a repeating pattern.

"Link?"

"Hey, neat trick."

"It's an ion cannon I found. What are you doing here?" Mega Man exclaimed with alarm.

"Hurting- ah-" he said as he tried to stand up, putting way too much weight on his injured leg. Mega Man quickly rushed over to help him up. "First the bear trap, now this. I'm not gonna have any legs left by the end," he quipped.

Mega Man checked the injury. A very bad burn mark on Link's leg, square in the center, and a more minor one on the shoulder told the tale.

"This needs to get treated. Come with me."

Link made little argument as he put his arm over Mega Man's shoulder and used him as a crutch to stand up on. They hobbled through the white laboratory rooms, all of which looked fairly similar to a first time observer.

"Is this where you live?" Link asked astonishedly. It was indescribably strange, but for some reason, seemed very much like Mega Man's taste. Every room looked the same - same size, same shape, same look, same sort of staticness. And none seemed to have any purpose behind them. But the fact that light came streaming in from the ceiling was amazing him. The sun must have been awful powerful here to come in from the skylights with such intensity. It must have been a desert world.

"Yes. Well, in a sense. You're in the basement laboratory of the Light manor. There're more human comforts at ground level. How did you get here?"

"I took the same way you did. Man, I thought the waterways were a ride," Link said, still looking up.

Mega Man hadn't experienced any tactile sensation during his journey so he thought nothing of it. "The portal? Why? You said you wanted to visit, but-"

"No, no, this was not a voluntary trip. After I said goodbye to you, the ceiling caved in and blocked the way out. I didn't really have much choice after that."

"Mmm, that's going to be a problem."

"Why?"

"Because that is what got me there in the first place." Mega Man pointed with his free hand as they entered another room.

There stood a mangled piece of machinery, consisting of wires, buttons, piping, and metal shards torn away in a pile on the floor.

"Uh, I take it it's broken," Link said.

"Correct. I'm positive we couldn't replicate the portal that brought me from Hyrule to here. Even if I knew how, the Triforce beam burnt out my circuits. I'll never be able to use it again."

"Oh, no," Link said sympathetically. "You don't have any seers here who could help?"

"There are no seers here anywhere," Mega Man said as they shambled past the broken equipment. Link looked back once at it, wondering what it looked like assembled. "The man who built that device is nowhere to be found right now. But we need to get you healed first."

"So I'm stuck here until we can find that guy?"

"Even if we find him, we may never be able to replicate the circumstances that brought the portal to Hyrule."

"So, I could be stuck here permanently?" Link bit his lip.

"Perhaps."

"Where's the guy who can rebuild it?"

"I just said, I don't know. I just arrived here right before you did. I have no idea what's been happening since I left." Mega Man hit a panel next to the door which slid up into the wall.

"Whoa, what was that?"

"A door."

Link looked up into the seam the gray panel had disappeared into. "Is it going to come back?"

"Yes. On your head, if you don't move." Mega Man gently tugged on Link as they passed through the archway. The door closed once they were through. Link looked behind him to see it do so.

"So you just touch that panel and the door moves?"

"Yes." Mega Man realized Link was being exposed to certain things which were certainly going to wreak havoc on his idea of living. It was like bringing a man from a thousand years past into the future. There was no precedent for what he was dealing with, for how to counsel Link. "You might see some strange things while you're here. Let me assure you they are all harmless and not a product of magic, just advanced science."

"Sure, sure," Link said. Mega Man expected Link to be more close-minded with his way of life being so unambitious. He seemed to be taking it all in with the inquisitiveness of a child.

They entered another door that whooshed up into the ceiling. This revealed a very tiny room which they entered.

"This is an elevator," Mega Man explained. "It is an automatic lifting device consisting of a cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical-"

"Yes, yes, we have elevators in Hyrule. I'm not that stupid." They were operated by rope and men, and there needed to be two at a time, one to go up and one to go down, but they existed. They were used more in mining tunnels, since no building could be built higher than Hyrule Castle.

Link felt a slight sensation in his body, as if it got heavier. In a flash, the sensation was replaced with being in motion, as if floating. "What's happening?"

"We're moving to the ground floor of the manor."

"Oh," he said, "I knew that." Link, despite hearing about elevators, had never actually been on one.

The lift reached the top floor and beeped pleasantly. The door opened, and the two of them stepped out into a hallway. The corridor held some doorways with panels next to them and some art pieces. Link's head remained glued to a fern as they passed it. It must have looked completely alien to him, Mega Man thought. The robot brought him out to a sitting room, where there were some chairs and sofas, lamps, and a standing plant in the corner.

"Wow," Link said, examining all the features of the room, especially fascinated with the bed-like resemblance of the sofa and wall embedded with bookcases. "It's the castle of the future."

"One could say that, but we have no governmental power. This is a dwelling for private citizens."

"Private citizens live like this? What kind of place does the king live in? Ow." Link was so fascinated with what he was seeing he temporarily forgot about the stabbing pain in his leg. Mega Man caught him as he dropped down.

"We don't have a king, but these are all questions I'll answer later as soon as we get you healed."

"I never remember to fill my potions," Link said idly.

Mega Man took Link to the next room which was the bathroom and leaned him just outside the door. The robot entered and opened a drawer below the mirror and grabbed a metal syringe-looking device. He came out and kneeled down to Link's leg, pressing a switch on the device. A yellow light began flashing on the top as he waved it over Link's wound.

"Second degree burn. This'll take care of it." The light switched to orange. Suddenly, Link felt no pain in his leg. In fact, with the sudden absence of pain, a strange echo was left in its place. He shook it away, testing out how it felt. It was like it was better than before.

"That was it?"

"Sure." Mega Man stood and did a quick wave over Link's shoulder. Any lingering sensation in that area lifted away like a blanket.

"You don't need a tourniquet or a potion or anything?"

"This device was all that was needed. And we don't have or need potions here."

"Really? Wow, definitely more advanced in medicine, if all you do is wave a stick over me. You sure that's not magic?"

"I assure you, magic does not exist here." Mega Man replaced the device in the cupboard and came out. Link peeked inside the bathroom to see what that was like. It felt like the cleanest, most sanitary area he'd ever seen, enough for doing surgical procedures in.

Mega Man said, "Okay, I need to check the computer."

"Computer? What's that?"

Mega Man briefly thought how best to define a computer to Link, because it had so many definitions, and because Link wouldn't understand many of them. "It's a device that we use for controlling various aspects of our lives, like storing information, communication, entertainment. Actually, it's a little like a robot, but it's distributed throughout the house."

"Ah," Link said, half-comprehending. This was probably something he was going to have to see to understand.

As they entered the room, Mega Man turned back to Link. "Stay here, and try not to touch anything."

"What, do you think I'm five years old?" he commented as Mega Man walked away. The robot simply didn't want Link activating the thermostat and putting the house in arctic temperatures by accident.

Mega Man went to the sofa and sat down in front of the coffee table. He flipped the top lid of the monitor open and activated the telecommunications program. He noticed that the last person contacted was Dr. Mihail Sergeivitch Cossack and it was made not too long ago, after he had left. He was a trusted friend of the family and might know where Roll was if she was the one who made the call. Mega Man redialed the connection.

The terminal monitor listed the command script it went through every time it made a call. The feminine computer said, "This call is long-distance and you will be charged an additional fee for connecting as described in the terms of agreement contract with TeleTech International. Do you accept these terms?"

"Yes," Mega Man said.

"What is that? Is there someone else here?" Link barged into the room.

"It's just the computer." Mega Man noticed Link was holding something in his hand that was whirring. "What are you holding?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me." Link held up the device for Mega Man's scrutiny. "It's not dangerous, is it?"

"It's a dentison. It's a device used for cleaning teeth."

"Really? How does it work?" Link tried putting it in his mouth and felt an incredibly peculiar sensation as his teeth nearly vibrated out of their gums.

"Mega Man?" the monitor said in a thick Russian accent. The two turned to the monitor, which showed a middle-aged man with graying light brown hair, matching beard, and thick square glasses.

"Dr. Cossack?"

"Mega Man, you are alive! Oh, is so good to be knowink."

"Is that what the computer looks like?" Link asked. Mega Man waved his hand to shush him. Link had no idea what he was looking at. Maybe the computer was some kind of king you went to for knoweldge or control. Like a fortune-teller for the world. He certainly spoke strangely like a fortune-teller.

"Where have you been?" The doctor asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Do you know what's happened while I've been away?"

"Acch, terrible. Amazink. Wily crashed your home, but iz been repaired, az you can see. Dr. Light was crushed by ceiling fall." Mega Man's eyes went wide with fear. "But iz all right," Cossack quickly corrected. "Iz in hospital, not hurt too badly."

Mega Man was very relieved. "And Roll?"

"Roll iz gone?" Cossack asked with confusion.

Mega Man was no longer relieved.

 **Next Chapter: Contact**


	35. Contact

"Where did Roll go?"

"That's what I was asking you," Mega Man responded.

"Hmm. Very interestink."

"She wasn't kidnapped by Wily, was she?"

"No, no one's heard about Wily since attack."

That didn't surprise Mega Man in the least. Wily's plans were always unknown until they sprung. Fortunately, they usually turned out to be the same every time, just a few tweaks in the strategy here and there.

Cossack continued, "She was upgraded though."

"Upgraded?"

"Da, but am not knowink to what extent. Our conversation was very brief."

"Okay, what about Dr. Light?"

"He iz at Mercy hospital. Doing well, I understand."

"Okay, thanks."

"Let me know if I am beink of more help," he said brightly.

"Sure will. Bye, doc."

Mega Man turned off the communication.

"Who's Roll?" Link said, leaning over the sofa, watching the call.

"Roll is my sister."

"Sister? I thought you said you were built. How could you have a sister?"

"Roll and I were built at nearly the same time. Technically, you are correct, I can't have a real sister, it's just a colloquialism."

"Is she a robot too?"

"Yes, though not as advanced as I since I've been continually improved since my inception." Although, maybe not anymore, Mega Man thought. What did Cossack mean by upgrades?

Nonetheless, Mega Man needed to contact Dr. Light, and it would be quicker if he could get him on the phone rather than teleport there, especially with the risk of leaving Link here alone. He reset the calling program and dialed the number for Mercy Hospital. Upon reaching the robot interface he requested to speak to Dr. Light, and was immediately patched into his vidcom.

"Hello?" he said. His face brightened once he saw Mega Man's helmeted visage. "Rock! It's you! You're all right. Where have you been? What happened?" Dr. Light animatedly queried while he struggled to rise up in his bed. The bandages around his torso and leg held in traction kept him from jumping out of his bed in excitement.

"Easy, easy, Dr. Light. Don't strain yourself. I'll tell you everything that's happened." Mega Man regaled his tale in an abbreviated format, starting from his transference through the teleporter full circle to his return home through the same means. He explained Hyrule as a parallel dimension in a semblance of the medieval era, and chose to leave out some important but extraneous elements such as magic, and the Triforce, instead replacing it with "My arm cannon sustained some damage during my time there, and it currently can't function."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm certainly not able to repair it now. There is a spare arm cannon in the laboratory though. It has no charge function though, I just kept it for emergencies. You have permission to install it yourself. I'm sure you know how."

"Yes, doctor."

Link thought it was odd that Mega Man would have to ask permission to gain his weapon back, or rather, to install it himself, but wrote it off as a cultural difference. He had been creeping closer to the TV screen as Mega Man told him the history of their adventures, becoming less and less bewildered by the device.

"How interesting," Dr. Light said. "I never had time to test out the configuration on the reconstitution program before this all happened. I-?" Dr. Light stopped and reacted silently as Link's gigantic face slowly slid onto the screen, the lens making his nose seem twice its size.

"And this..." Mega Man gestured to Link to come over to the couch and face the monitor. Link slowly did so and leaned into the screen, gaping at it with a glazed look, mouth hanging open. "This is Link."

Dr. Light's eyes went wide at the site of this boy with pointy ears staring dumbly into the monitor, dressed in forest green. "Mega Man, what did I tell you about bringing strange people home with you?" Dr. Light chided with a wide smile.

Link reached out with a finger and poked the screen. The liquid crystal display rippled at the touch. Link immediately jerked his hand back. "What is this? Some sort of... ice?"

"No, it's just a screen. A communicator. This is Dr. Light, my creator."

Link cocked his head to the side. "Hello?" he said.

"Hello to you. My, you are from the medieval era, aren't you. Rock, how did he get here?"

"It was an accident. And unfortunately, the transporter has been rendered inoperable."

"Yes, Roll told me."

Link again tried poking the monitor and looking behind it. "Is he somewhere else?"

Mega Man took hold of his finger and put it down, "Careful, you could damage the screen." He turned back to Dr. Light. "What about your injuries?"

"Oh, nothing serious. A twisted femur, and some busted ribs, that's about the long and short of it. I should be back in action in a few days." He added an enthusiastic punch in the air.

"I'm happy. What about Dr. Wily?"

"We haven't heard anything about him since he destroyed the house. Roll told me all the repairs have been made. And those robot masters haven't reared their ugly heads either." Mega Man nodded in acknowledgement. "This is interesting though. He didn't come to attack us, or kill us. Roll found out he took my vase."

"Your vase?"

"Yes, the gray vase that was in my bedroom, under the painting."

"I remember it," he replied, drawing from his image memory.

"Apparently, Roll discovered some sort of binary code in the markings, but she wasn't able to decipher it before she went out."

"Went out? Where did she go?" Dr. Light had already answered Mega Man's last question.

The bed-ridden doctor sighed. "We were trapped in the basement and, against my better wishes, I had to upgrade her battle capability. She's no longer just a housekeeping robot."

"Really?" Mega Man's eyes went wide, not sure how to feel.

"Unfortunately, after she was finished researching the vase, she got it into her head that she could go off to find Wily. I assume that's where she is."

"And you let her do this?"

"I... it's complicated."

"But how would she do that? Does she know where he's holing up?"

"I presume that she had at least some inkling. All she asked me for was permission to go after him, I wasn't aware that she actually found him. We need the knowledge of his robot masters to triangulate his coordinates. Maybe she found another way. Have you tried making contact with her?"

"Yes, but I haven't been successful."

"Oh, dear. Rock, you must find her. That's our main concern."

"Agreed." Mega Man would have made that a priority anyway.

"There must be something around there that would indicate where she went. Try searching through some log files, or recently used programs. She wouldn't have just gone off on a brute-force search."

"All right, thank you doctor."

"And take care of our guest there."

"I will. Goodbye."

"Do your best, Rock."

The image of Dr. Light blinked away to the message 'call terminated'. Mega Man closed the program and started searching through the recently used files of the computer. Link watched with genuine interest as he brought up a world map gleaned from the Hypernet's global scanner database. Roll had apparently accessed this at some point to search for Wily's skull castle, but there was no evidence as to where it would be. In order to find it, Mega Man was going to have to think like Roll. Even though they had started out with the same A.I., they had both evolved with distinctly different personalities through their experiences. He wasn't advanced enough for this kind of creative detective work. Trying to guess what Roll would have looked for was like looking for a needle in a haystack. There were a thousand random instructions that could have been streaming through her head, trying to think of where Wily was. Where would she have started from?

Suddenly, light came streaming into the room and right into his eyes. Distracted and squinting in the light, the android looked up to see Link standing next to the drape control panel, closing back the curtains. Link pressed the switch again and the curtains opened, and closed, opened, and closed.

"Link, will you cut that out please?"

"You need a switch to close the drapes? Isn't it kind of lazy?"

"It controls the curtains for the entire house, so you can open them from anywhere in the house. Please stop playing with it."

Link shut back the curtains. Mega Man brought him to this strange version of the world that was set up like an amusement fair, and he wasn't letting him have any fun.

The robot turned back to his work as the last irritating photons faded from his eyes, blocked by the curtains.

Hmm.

For some reason, that thought gave Mega Man some inspiration. He typed some commands into the world map and did a search for concentrations of tachyon fields.

Link, having his fun quashed, came over to sit by Mega Man. "What's that?"

"A map of the world, and currently searching for tachyon shields."

Link had no idea what the outlines of the oceans and continents were. It just looked like abstract art. All his maps were color illustrated and hand drawn. "What are those?" he asked, referring to tachyons.

"Particles which disrupt energy transportation. If a body teleports into a high concentration of tachyons, the reassembly will wind up scrambled and disrupted."

"Oh... what does that mean?"

"It blocks teleports in. If someone teleported into tachyons they'd be reassembled completely wrong, effectively destroying whatever was teleported." Like himself, Mega Man thought.

Link nodded. He thought tachyons were some sort of monster. It sure sounded like one.

The search reached 100 completion, lighting up levels of the globe with high dilutions.

"So why are you looking for that?" Link asked.

"Lots of buildings have tachyon fields around their perimeters. It prevents unwanted things from teleporting in and surprising them. Like Wily's robots. But only key points around the world have them, like important factories or government buildings."

"So... what, Roll has the ability to teleport?"

"Yes, as do I. Most robots do."

"Wait, so you could have teleported away at any time?"

"Not in Hyrule. There needs to be a teleport pylon within a certain radius for me to land there. You can find them most anywhere in this world, but there are obviously none in Hyrule."

"Ah." Link was beginning to learn there were a lot of neat abilities Mega Man had that he hadn't used in Hyrule. That was okay, Link hadn't shown him his whole bag of tricks yet either.

Mega Man scrolled around the map, investigating each concentration of tachyon surges, noting each one as either a known building or otherwise legally sanctioned tachyon field.

"So if you find the right tachyon field, you'll find this guy, Wily."

"Yes, I need to find one that seems extraneous to the others, or isn't otherwise legally sanctioned. If he was already in a legally sanctioned one, the newslinks would be headlining that and his cover would be blown, so I'm suspecting he's somewhere isolated."

"What if he's not using a tachyon field? It sounds like it would just garner suspicion if it wasn't... legally sanctioned."

Hmm, Link had a point there. He just assumed Wily would have a tachyon field up to prevent him from directly teleporting in to the central command, like he always did. It was the reason he had to land some distance away from an overtaken structure and fight his way inside. Instead of searching for tachyons, maybe it would be better to search for buildings that didn't have tachyons that should have. He put in the query string and a blue circle lit up in the Antarctic continent. It was quite the ranged area, but it said that there was a shortage of tachyons in that area. There should not have been, given that the Antarctic research base was the only structure down there worth having one. It was unusual enough to send a scout down there to check.

"There?" Link asked.

"Yep, the Antarctic. Very cold region." Mega Man brought up the house computer and activated one of the Beats in the garage/hangar bay at the other end of the property. Link watched as a picture of a fat blue bird shaped like an egg came up. The robot pressed some buttons on a panel in front of him and activated the teleport on the machine.

"What's that thing?"

"Beat. It's a bird robot Dr. Light built for many purposes, capable of carrying large loads. Right now, I'm going to use him for... scouting."

Mega Man punctuated his last word by punching up the camera on the freshly teleported Beat robot. The in-window camera provided a nearly pitch-black frozen wasteland with heavy snow. The only light was from the hi-res photon spotlight Beat was sweeping back and forth on the ice shelf.

"How long could this take?"

"Not long. It's not just the visual, it's also got sonic, infra-red, electrochemical, bistatic, and other analyzers that go much farther. Hopefully, we'll be able to spot her if she's down there."

The Beat bird spent half an hour sweeping back and forth the arctic wasteland hypnotically. Link only had the patience for it because he was used to making long journeys back and forth in unexciting landscapes. Though he had never seen snow on this level. He couldn't imagine anyone but the heartiest types of races inhabiting it, and probably living beneath the surface where it was warmer.

If they were searching by eyes alone they never would have found Roll, but Mega Man was busy keeping watch on all the sensors the bird had to offer. Every square mile was thoroughly scanned for signs of the lost robot. Mega Man was not lying when he assured Link if she was down there, they'd find her.

Link nearly jumped to the ceiling when he saw a red light in the darkness. It quickly passed from one side of the window to the corner almost instantaneously.

"That! What was that? I saw a red light."

Mega Man answered without inflection, "Yes, a flight beacon. We're coming close to the airstrip."

"Air strip?" Link was picturing a strip of paper in the air.

"It's a landing area for aircraft, which are machines which carry passengers through the air. Some of them need a long strip of land to take off and land on."

"Interesting. Maybe she got there in an airplane."

"No, she teleported. Otherwise, I would have found some means of transportation she arranged. We're programmed to take the shortest route, the path of least resistance."

Mega Man thought the research base would have been a likely headquarters for Wily, and a likely destination for Roll. To confirm his suspicions, the computer suddenly beeped an alarm, waking them out of their hypnotic stupor. Mega Man pulled up the offending program and saw a red flashing blip in the 3-D sonar.

"Is that her?" Link asked.

Mega Man typed in some more commands, bringing Beat close to the zone where the alarm had gone off. Link paid close attention to the visual as it was brought down to the ground, but there was nothing but snow.

"I don't see her."

Mega Man switched the unaltered visual feed to x-ray. The colors changed from black and gray to brightly fluorescent yellow, pink, and blue. In that acidic mish-mash of colors there was an white outline of a body lying down.

"Is that her?" Link said.

"She must be buried in the snow." Mega Man commanded Beat to bring out his heat ray, set to the lowest intensity, just enough to melt the snow without melting Roll. In the camera, a small muzzle extended out from the bottom and swept a red ray over the area in front of it. The layer of snow on her wasn't very high, the blizzard must have just started, and she was unsheathed in no time.

"She must be unconscious," Link said.

"Or inactivated. But I think she's still alive." Even though Mega Man had no evidence for that, she wasn't destroyed so that meant she could be brought back, though he hadn't the foggiest why she was immobile.

"She should be all right, but she needs to be brought back here." Mega Man commanded Beat to pick her up. The camera showed the region in view getting closer to Roll, hovering over her. Off-screen, Beat's feet latched onto Roll's shoulders and lifted off. With no effort, it flew off, a little more encumbered, but not impeded by the extra weight.

"Can't you teleport her out of there?" Link asked.

"I can't get in touch with her to activate her teleport by remote. We'll just have to transfer her somewhere safe." Mega Man set a course for an island off of South America. Beat would be able to make the trip with no problem.

Suddenly, a flash of dull red caught Link's eye as he looked at the camera feed, still set to X-ray. "What's that?" Link pointed out a squat body standing on the ground, holding up his arm.

The body silently shot something bright, like one of Mega Man's plasma blasts, that grew larger in the camera window. "Uh-oh."

The shot met the camera and the feed soundlessly changed to pitch black. If he could have, Mega Man would have gulped in worry.

 **Next Chapter: Getting There is Half the Fun**


	36. Getting There Is Half the Fun

Mega Man continually tried to access Beat, but received no response. Each unpleasant buzz indicating the inability to make a connection raised Mega Man's alarm levels.

Fervently, he typed commands into the computer. "We need to get to Antarctica now!" Link was a bit taken aback by his intensity, but kept quiet. The outline of the frozen continent in the world projection faded from blue to red. Somehow, a tachyon field had just been erected, preventing Mega Man from automatically teleporting there and saving the day. And the robot knew just who to blame.

He pounded his fist lightly on the table. "And Wily just brought up a tachyon field. Fantastic." He hit some more buttons and the screen went black. "I'm going to have to do this the hard way." He stood up and started to run off into the hallway.

"Wait, where are you going?" Link said, trailing along.

"I have to get my arm cannon. Then I'm going down there and getting Roll."

"Hold on. I'm coming with you."

"No, you can't. Wily's robots undoubtedly know about her location, now that one's spotted her. Time is of the essence. I can't have a human slowing me down. I'm sorry."

Link was perturbed now. "If you think I'm going to let you go off on some adventure without me, you're sadly mistaken. Especially in this world. I'm going with you whether you like it or not."

"You would be placed in too great a danger."

"Danger? You're talking to me about danger?" Mega Man hit the control for the elevator and they dropped down to the lab.

"These aren't the kind of enemies you're used to. They're robots, like me. They won't yield to a simple sword. They're made of metal, not magic."

"If you're talking about that thing in the basement, that was just cause it caught me by surprise. I have more skills than just swinging a sword around. At least it would be useful to have another set of eyes around. Besides, you're the one responsible for bringing me here. You have to take me along."

Mega Man did not follow Link's logic of responsibility. "You're the one who jumped through the portal."

"I didn't have a choice."

"Nonetheless, I didn't bring you here."

"Look, don't you think you owe me more then making me sit here in your house with nothing to do, when there's a great big world out there I could explore. When it came to going out in Hyrule, I asked you to come along. Don't you think you should do the same for me?"

"That was because I had special skills to offer you. Sorry to say, there's not much here you can do."

"Well, you'll never know that until we see, won't we? I've got plenty. I've got the hookshot, a magic boomerang, fire and ice rods."

"I told you, there is no magic in this world. Those devices won't work here."

This was really frustrating Link. The doors opened and Mega Man exited. Link, racking his brain to try and convince him to be brought along, followed at his feet. "If you don't bring me along, then I'm going to go out and explore on my own." Mega Man looked back at him with a questioning look. "You know I will. There's nothing I love more than exploring. And what better place could there be to do that but here, in a world I've never seen before?"

Mega Man pondered this. He could lock him in the house, using the security measures. That would keep him from getting in trouble. On the other hand, leaving him here could be perilous. They were plenty of ways for a stranger in a strange land to get hurt even on the simplest tools. The first law stated that he couldn't allow a human to come to harm through action or inaction. Maybe it would be better to bring him along where he could keep an eye on him.

"Very well, but you must stay close to me at all times and follow my instructions."

"No problem," Link ceded. He didn't know the territory well, so a guide would be nice. Mega Man started off towards the elevator. "So how long is it going to take to get there?"

"Near instantaneous. Configuring the coordinates will merely take a few minutes."

"We're teleporting? But I thought you just said Wily put up a tacky-yon thing."

"We're going to have to teleport just outside the field and run there." Like he had done so many times before. "I know where Roll's exact location is. Getting there will just be the problem."

"That seems kind of inefficient."

Mega Man turned around and glared at him, stopping Link in his tracks. "You have a better way?"

"Well, don't you have any waterways?"

"No. Antarctica is a frozen desert."

"If only this was the Dark World, I could call on the magical rooster."

"What?"

"Just forget it. What about vehicles? Can't you just transport to a vehicle? That might be faster."

Mega Man pondered this. He had already considered taking Rush, but the dog wouldn't have enough power to make it even a quarter of the distance. But if he could get to another base and grab a transport scout, or some similar vehicle, and zoom to Roll's coordinates... He did some quick calculations and figured there would be a chance of being faster, especially with Link coming along. The 'X' factor was in being able to get a vehicle there.

It was worth a try though. Mega Man took him to a room with a large panel set on a desk and turned it on. From behind, Link watched him access the portal to the Computer. Several words appeared on the screen and an avatar's face came on, different than the one he'd seen before.

"McMurdo Base, Reno speaking."

"This is Mega Man."

"Oh! Yes, what can I do for you?"

"I need a two-person transport vehicle sent to twenty-three degrees forty-three minutes south, eleven degrees three minutes west. Do you have anything available?"

"Well... lemme see." The man in the screen looked down at a clipboard and then some other documents around him. "I think you're in luck. We have an exploratory crew a couple kilometers from that location. All robots. They took a metonicle RJ down there. No battle armaments, just transportation."

"That's fine."

"I can have it sent to that location by remote if you want?"

"Yes, please do so. I'm in a hurry."

"Is it Dr. Wily?"

"Possibly." Mega Man secretly thought, _when isn't it_? "I'm going to be teleporting to that location shortly.

"Okay, we'll have it sent at top-speed. Our robos can wait a little while."

"Thank you. Mega Man out." The screen blanked-out.

Link smirked. "Wait, so there's a crew out there? And they're just leaving them there?"

Mega Man stood up and walked away, Link following. "They're robots. They're built to withstand the cold, and they only do what they're ordered to. If they're ordered to wait, they wait."

The Hylian was surprised when they ended up back in the lab. He expected to come out in some kind of stable for transportation to Antarctica. Then he remembered the deal with the arm cannon.

Mega Man spent a moment looking through supplies and closets for his arm cannon. "Aha," he exclaimed upon its discovery. He took out the blue cylindrical device and examined it. It was a mark one blaster, about half as powerful as his current one, with no charge option and a version 1.0 weapon copy feature. Dr. Light probably kept it just for emergencies. He took the weapon to an operating table and set it down, picking out some tools from the drawer underneath.

"Does... um... does it take a long time to put on?" Link asked, glancing nervously from the table to his hands.

"No. I just need to sever the connections and reconnect this new one."

Mega Man internally severed network ties to his peripheral as he swept the tools needed over his arm to disconnect it from his hardware. With a yank he pulled off the device and set it aside.

"Yikes," Link uttered on seeing his forearm detach, "You can just remove it like that?" It was like chopping off his arm and putting it back on.

"Yes," Mega Man responded.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

"I don't feel pain in the conventional sense. I can sense there has been something removed from my body. But there's no 'alarm system' like there is in humans because it was done deliberately."

"So it doesn't hurt."

"Not really." Mega Man picked up the new cannon and hooked it into his stubbed elbow.

"I have a question," Link said, as if he hadn't needed permission for all the others he'd posed. "Why did you need to ask Dr. Light for permission to put this on?"

While he reconnected and configured the plug-and-play arm cannon, he said, "Just like I can't self-terminate, I also can't self-upgrade. It's another restriction put on robots. If robots could improve themselves, they could take it too far and become vastly dangerous. Today's A.I. doesn't have the ability to think creatively like that, but it's more precautionary. Besides, this is really more of a downgrade."

Link contemplated the meaning of this, thinking back to his comment some time ago about slavery. If robots couldn't improve themselves, they could never evolve to how they wanted. It was a way of the programmers to keep their control over them.

The hardware connections fitted, and Mega Man performed a quick diagnostic on the blaster. 'Downgrade' was an understatement. It would take some time to get used to having this lesser-developed weapon instead of his Mega Buster.

"All right. Now we have to get you prepared. Let's see." Mega Man rummaged through drawers and cabinets until he found what he was looking for. "Aha. This should do it." He held up an rectangular black box with a waist-strap around it.

"Here, you'll want to put this on."

"What is it?"

"A thermal shield. It'll protect you against the cold."

"Really? I've been in the ice palace. It's pretty cold there."

"Antarctica is located on the bottom of the world. The average temperature currently is negative ten to negative thirty degrees Celsius."

"...Is that cold?"

"With wind speed, it could freeze you in a matter of minutes."

"Ah-huh. Maybe I will wear this."

"Don't turn it on until we get there. I'm not sure of what its battery life is."

"Battery life?"

"How long it will last."

"Uh, this thing won't conk out on me right in the middle of a fight will it."

"It's not a shield in the conventional sense, like that." He pointed to the scarred metal on Link's back. "It just projects a globular energy bubble that encapsulates warm air and recirculates it."

"Okay," Link nodded and smiled.

"We're set. Let's get to the teleporter."

Mega Man led Link down some halls and down one level further to the large room set up for teleportation. There were two great big cylinders surrounding a large pad in the middle.

Link whistled in awe. "This is pretty snazzy. You must use this all the time. It would be pretty handy if you could teleport anywhere in the land with no restrictions."

"Actually, only advanced robots and machines have the ability to self-teleport anywhere," Mega Man replied as he sat next to a console, turning on the power and reconfiguring the system. "They're the only ones who can handle the circuitry and power requirements to do so. Everyone else uses a machine like this. But only the wealthy can afford a personal one. There are public ones available."

"I see. So... everyone has to use a teleporter if they want to get somewhere."

"They don't have to. Actually, very few humans use teleportation because of their distrust of the complexity involved and the way it makes them feel afterward. There are plenty of transportational vehicles, both public and private, and they're much cheaper."

"The way it makes them feel?"

"They often get sick to their stomach."

"Oh, I'm no stranger to teleporting," he replied boldly. It's not like he didn't get nauseous a few times flying over the golden realm only holding onto a bird's foot. But he had frequently shifted in and out of the Dark World and the Light World in his quests. He had felt no sensations during that, just the sight of the world around him shifting. "Well, then what do you use it for?"

"Cargo, usually. This one, actually we use more for waste disposal."

"Ah... that would explain the smell."

Mega Man punched some last buttons into the console and stood up. "We should be set up now. I'm gonna hate to see our electric bill though."

"What?"

"Nothing. Can you stand on the pad there?"

"No problem." Link stepped onto the crystal platform between the intimidating power transfunctioners. "Should I turn on my shield yet?"

"Not yet." Mega Man continued at the terminal then stood up and stepped onto the platform next to Link. "Many humans report having feelings of anxiety during their first teleportation."

"Oh, please. It's not like I've never teleported before. When I was-"

Link ceased to speak because the cells holding his vocal chords were no longer cohesive. He felt like his brain was crammed into a can. An intense feeling of claustrophobia ran through his cold blood. Thoughts were no longer processing, just pure blind primitive emotion. He wasn't sure whether his eyes were open or not, but he could see amazing colors and pictures rushing towards him.

All of this was over in an instant. The teleportation replaced the gray metal chamber with a land of white and sky of black. The air was crisp and cold. Snowflakes fluttered around him.

Mega Man looked around at his location. "Hmm, this looks right. Our coordinates match our surroundings. There should be a minimum margin of error. How'd it go?" Mega Man tapped his friend on the shoulder.

Link turned around and threw up.

Mega Man casually stepped back from the fountaining stomach contents so as not to mess himself and give Link personal space. The warm vomit ate threw the ground layer of packed snow like acid and warm, pungent steam rose.

When he was finished, Link wiped his mouth and looked up. "Urrgh... that wasn't fun..." he panted.

"I've never seen teleporting sickness that severe before."

"Neither have I," he said as he spit into the snow and held his cramping stomach.

"Our vehicle should be here shortly."

"Goody." He stood back up and a crisp wind hit him. "Ah, jeez, it is cold." He stepped away from his newly produced pile and looked at the snow encrusting his boots as he walked forward, looking around the new area. The darkened sky looked like they were in a very small area that expanded endlessly.

"You can turn on your shield now."

"How do I do that?"

"Press the button on the square box."

Link pressed the button on the square buckle. A bubble rapidly expanded outward and enveloped him head to toe. Link darted his head around looking at it. The temperature gradually returned to comfortable as the cold air was warmed up. Looking at the belt, the display read 70, which was probably some measure of the temperature. The hero pushed his fingers outside the sphere, discovering that the warming only resided in the boundaries of the clear globe. Now this really was an ingenious device. If you could regulate the temperature of your environment in a shield, you could go anywhere. You could dive into a volcano.

"This is fantastic," he said as he moved around. The bubble moved with him like a hamster ball. He looked out into the nearly black landscape. "Look at all the snow. It goes on forever."

"Our ride's here."

Link stopped jumping into the fluffy powder and looked up. A light in the distance was rushing towards them. The light grew bigger, until Link could see it was some sort of big rounded metal bird coming towards him. A rushing of wind accompanied the elongated, but spherical aircraft as it fired its retro rockets to come down to a safe landing in front of them.

"Whoa," Link said. "Is that it?"

"It is," he said as he approached the vessel. Tapping on the panel next to the door he opened the door. "Come on in.".

Link looked around and entered the tiny room. Making a mobile room was pretty amazing, he thought as he stepped onto the carpet. Two seats connected to the ground in front of the front window. Link took the one not occupied by Mega Man and gazed at all the read-outs and controls on the panel in front of him. Everything was written in a strange language.

Mega Man shut the entrance door and locked it. "An RJ-202 metonicle," he mused to himself. He hit some more buttons. "Do you see that strap behind the chair?"

Link looked behind him. Two black leather straps connected in a V to a metal tab hung over the back of the chair. "Yes."

"Pull it over your head and connect it to the buckle under your seat."

Link felt under the chair for a 'buckle' and pulled up a similar strap with a flat metal cube with a slot. He connected the two at his chest and realized the straps were meant to keep him secure in the chair, but still fairly free to move about. "What's this for?" he asked for clarity.

"A securing device. We'll be moving at a high velocity so this will keep you from flying about."

"Oh," Link replied with tremors in his voice.

"Better hold on." Mega Man said as he pulled out the control stick. Link could feel himself sinking back in his seat and gravity trying to pull him downward. The front window changed from half ground to full night sky, with snow falling directly onto them. He no longer felt the sensation of solid ground beneath him.

"Uhhh..." Link found the best thing to hold onto was the armrests, so he gripped those with his fingers. "Where did the ground go?"

"Ready ... Launch!"

Link wasn't sure what happened immediately after Mega Man said that word. At one point he was in the tiny room, and then the chair was sucking him in. It felt like all his organs were being pressed into his back in a powerful invisible wind he couldn't feel.

Slowly, adjusting to the pressure, he opened his eyes that felt like they were going roll backwards. The window in the front showed the landscape below rushing behind him. "Wwwwwwhhhhhaaaaaatttttt..."

"Hang on. We might hit some turbulence."

"Mmmmmmmmgggggaaaaa..." Link mumbled, trying to open his mouth amid the gravity forced on it. The ground was getting hazier and hazier, more and more distant. The vehicle began to vibrate fiercely.

"Too much pressure," Mega Man explained. "This craft was meant for ground-level excursions."

"Sssssstttttoooopppp..." Link could feel his heart about to rip out of his chest. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Can't stop. We're taking a triangular approach. Much faster than cruising along the surface. I just hope this thing can take it. We're almost at the apex though."

"Rrrrrrrrggggggg..." The front window's display started to change from misted over sky to darker blue. As the pressure on his body began to lift, he took gasping amounts of air. "Wha-... what was that..." he struggled. "Where-"

"Oh, you might be feeling some after-effects of the g-forces. Looks like we went a little under mach-one."

"Mock-one? That was... so fast."

"Changing pitch and yaw to 321 mark 34. And... set."

The hovercraft tilted downward, until it felt like he was going to be poured out of the craft, crashing through the front window. The entire window showed white, lit by the lights on their vehicle.

"What... what's going on?"

Mega Man pushed the control stick downward and the craft dropped like a rock. Link felt his stomach lurch into his throat. If that strap wasn't keeping him in, he would have hit the ceiling. It seemed like he was floating above his seat.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAR!" Link screamed.

Mega Man swept the control stick down and the craft swooped above the landscape just before it hit. He decelerated the craft so they were able to scan the land before them at a slower pace.

Link held his hand up to his chest, feeling it pounding. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and rubbed his aching, cramped stomach.

"I'm sorry I had to do that without preparation, but we didn't have the time. I didn't realize you weren't used to such high speeds. We should be reaching Roll's last known coordinates soon."

Link's eyes traveled up and down with the rushing snowscape below. "Uh... uh-huh... whatever."

Suddenly, an alarm in the craft sounded. "Now what?" Link asked.

"We're being fired on."

"What!"

"We're being fired on. A ground turret. Wily must have armaments deployed already. Hidden in the snow." He gripped tighter onto the control stick. "Hang on to something."

The craft suddenly dipped sharply to Link's side. The gravity shifted to the side door as Link resisted falling through it. The landscape filled up the window he was pressed against. "AAAAAHHHH!" he screamed. He tried to force himself up to the chair to avoid touching the window for fear he would break it and fall out.

Laser blasts fired up in the front and side windows. Mega Man gritted his teeth as he pulled the craft out of a spin, narrowly dodging an energy blast that went right across the ship's nose.

"Can't keep this up forever," he muttered as Link continued screaming in terror. He'd have thought with a zippy craft like this it would have better evasive maneuvers, but it had been flying a long time. Its parts were not meant for this sort of high-speed endurance.

As if in omen to his thoughts, a plasma burst neatly cut vertically up through the turbine pipe at the back of the craft. The robot watched with trepidation as the engine output levels began steadily dropping. Smoke billowing out the back of the craft started to fill up the windshield.

"Hang on," Mega Man shouted above the craft's violent vibration.

"What do you think I'm doing?"

The direction of the winds caught the little vehicle in a spin, rotating it around like a helicopter as it sharply lost altitude, plummeting at increasing speed. Mega Man hit the retro rockets as the craft dipped lower to the ground. The vehicle bounced once from the reverse in inertia, but it was only temporary, Mega Man knew. They were going to crash.

"AAAAAAAH!" Link continued.

Mega Man did everything he could to soften the blow. The plasma blasts flying at them stopped as they reached critical altitude. "Hang on!" Mega Man repeated as he braced himself for the blow. Link shut his eyes in terror.

The spinning craft made impact with the snow. The two passengers' seat belts kept them in their seats as they recoiled up and down. Link kept springing back and forth, hitting the secure armrests of the chair, bruising his sides. The world spun quickly in the front window like an amusement ride. The snow and centrifugal force did all they could to soften the crash. Mega Man thanked his lucky stars that the craft didn't explode.

Eventually the motion of the craft slowed down and rotated to a final swing, hissing as it rested, jerking the two back slightly from the forward inertia.

"Oooh," Link groaned. "I don't feel so good."

Mega Man did a check on himself and found nothing had been injured. A quick visual check on Link said the same about him.

"What a ride that was," Link continued.

"You can unbuckle your seatbelt now. We've landed."

"No kidding." Link fiddled around with the buckle for a moment, trying to pull apart the straps when he hit the button on the metal square, freeing him. "Ow, that smarts."

"You okay?" Mega Man asked.

"I feel like someone just put my body through a laundry."

"We should get out of here," Mega Man said as he dug under his seat. "Might be robots coming for us soon. And this vehicle might explode."

"You won't hear any complaints from me."

Wily's guard robots would have undoubtedly seen their crash, but maybe not know the landing site exactly, depending on where they and their radars were. If luck was on their side, they'd be able to find Roll and get out quickly.

The door automatically opened for Mega Man, hinging outward like a latch and jumped out into the snow. Link, still unaffected due to his thermal shield, jumped down behind him. Black smoke was puffing out from the back of the craft. No doubt it would be seen by attackers fairly soon.

"All right, now we've got to find your sister," Link said.

"Right. She should be near this location."

They trotted off into the snowy landscape in a spiral pattern, their eyes moving back and forth. The emergency floodlight from their craft eventually faded out and soon Link and Mega Man were walking in near pitch black, if not for the full moon and wide canopy of stars. Mega Man would, of course, pick-up Roll's presence before Link because of his attuned sensors.

Link, however, was doing a better job at keeping up with Mega Man's run than he thought. All that training in the fields of Hyrule must have had an effect on him. He followed diligently, trudging through the swampy snow. It was like running in cold sand, but easier. That didn't stop Link from wishing he had his pegasus boots on. Too much of this would be murder on his calves after long.

Mega Man's electrical light refraction vision picked up a body's outline in the snow. "I see Roll," Mega Man said and started heading off into a westerly direction. Link looked left and right as they ran but spotted nothing but blackness. Fortunately, it looked like their attackers hadn't found them yet.

Mega Man suddenly skidded to a stop and bent down into the snow. He dusted off the form of a body in the snow and lifted her up. "Roll? Roll can you hear me?" He inspected her body for any signs of battle damage.

Mega Man hoisted Roll to his shoulder. Her blond ponytail swung back and forth like a pendulum with her stiff arms flung out like she was flying.

"How is she?" Link asked.

"Can't tell. I can't teleport her out of here. We need to get to some shelter so I can find out what's wrong."

Link dug into his bag and pulled out his lantern. "This'll do the trick." He ignited it.

Or he tried to. For some reason the rotten thing wouldn't start up. He had plenty of magic power, he drank a potion before they left for Kakariko village and hadn't used any magic since. The lantern's bulb remained gray and unlit. "Maybe I won't be doing the trick," he said tried a few more times. Maybe Mega Man was right, magic didn't exist here.

"Never mind that, let's get to the metonicle."

Link put back the lantern. "Did you say the research base was close by?"

"Yes, but-" Mega Man was about to say the craft was closer, but it was meant for three people and the thermal shield he'd given Link may not have that much battery life. Plus the fact that he had no idea if the craft could be repaired. The base may have been farther, but it would likely have the resources they needed. Plus the inhabiting humans would help them. "Actually, that's a good idea. Let's go."

No sooner did they say that then a plasma shot buried itself in the ground below Link's boots. He nearly fell back into the snow in surprise. Mega Man looked up to the hill to see three guard joes rushing toward them from a far hill.

 **Next Chapter: Strategic Retreat**


	37. Strategic Retreat

"Run!" Mega Man said as he struggled to move under the weight of his sister.

Link started to dash off, then looked in multiple directions. "Run where?" There was nothing but inky blackness as far as the eye could see.

"Follow me!" Mega Man started off down the snow valley, obviously encumbered by Roll's body on his shoulder. Link struggled to match pace but the snow kept him from reaching a full sprint. If only his fire rod worked he could have covered Mega Man while they dashed off.

Mega Man adjusted Roll to his other shoulder as he activated his arm cannon. He twisted his body and fired at the robots on the crest of the snow mound. They brought up their litanium shields and the plasma blasts flew off at reflected angles. Mega Man hated those things and kept pummeling them as hard as he could as they hid behind their protection.

Link nearly fell on his back as one of the assailants shots nearly got him in the foot. A melted scorch in the snow marked where he had nearly gotten scorched himself. Link took off his shield and held it at his side as he ran in a zig-zag in order to avoid the shots which could easily have taken off his leg.

Mega Man's constant bombardment finally paid off. One of the sniper joes dropped his shield in order to fire and caught a plasma blast in the side of his head. He staggered back as Mega Man fired three more shots at the unarmored foe, finishing him off. Its oblong shield tumbled down the hill, along with some of its appendages.

The remaining two continued their assault, oblivious their fallen comrade. Yellow energy rained down around Mega Man, mostly ignoring Link, except for when he got in the way. They must have thought a lone human was inconsequential. Just as Mega Man jumped to avoid the peltering, a shot hit him in the kneecap, causing Mega Man to skip a step, but he maintained his balance and speed. He fired back at the enemies, trading shots like water balloons. After they thought they would be running forever, their destination crept over the hill in the distance. Faded lit windows dotting the base became visible to the naked eye.

Suddenly, Mega Man took a shot square in the chest, causing him to fall back into the snow, enveloped by white light. Link instinctively jumped out in front on seeing his fallen friend, holding his shield outward.

"No, get back!" Mega Man said, knowing one of those plasma blasts would tear right through Link as it had the moblins. He grabbed Link's tunic and pulled him back behind him. "I just lost my balance," he said as he stood up himself.

"It's Roll. You need to put her down."

"I can't put her down. We need to get to the base."

"No, we need you to fight back. Give her to me. I can take her."

"No, she's too heavy."

"And you can't fight with her on your back. There's no time to argue. Give her to me."

Mega Man followed the second law with only a moment's hesitation and shifted Roll off his shoulder. Link felt an icy chill on the nape of his neck as her arm dragged across his skin. "It's not far. Just head for those windows. Don't look back."

"Yeah, yeah, I carried you, I can carry her. Get going." Link tugged himself out of his standing inertia and got moving, dragging Roll's feet in the snow. He grunted along, trying to get his doubly heavy load moving faster. Link realized he was going to have to do more weightlifting when he got back to Hyrule. Plasma shots began littering his path as the attackers noticed another robot was making an escape.

Mega Man wasn't about to let that happen though. Unfettered, he took off at a sprint up the hill, firing his arm cannon like a madman. This new threat distracted the two and they set their sights back on the blue robot coming at them ferociously.

Link dragged Roll at about half the speed Mega Man was making through the snow, but at least he wasn't getting fired at. He suppressed the itch to look behind him to see how Mega Man was doing, if he was surviving the battle between robots. The base was only yards away now. He gritted his teeth in determination and pushed his legs to the limit.

The doors automatically opened for him as he approached the lit entrance. Two gray doors with small windows blocked his passage further. As soon as the doors closed behind him, Link collapsed in exhaustion. Roll clanged to the metal ground next to him. Link's arms shaking with fatigue, he used his legs to push himself upright and lean against the doors into the complex. He peered into the small window and saw a hallway with doors on each side. No people though.

"Hello? Hello?" he shouted to anyone within earshot, which was no one. He knew this area wasn't going to be very secure for him and Roll if those robots started after him. The only object in this foyer was a box on the wall with a green lit pad next to it. Link examined the device, poking it, seeing if it could allow them a way in. Maybe it was some sort of key dispenser.

"Hello?" he said. "We need entrance. It's an emergency. Do you have a key?" His stimulus provided no response. "Anyone!" He shouted to the ceiling. "Open the door, please! Now! It's an emergency."

The hero withdrew his sword, "Oh, for cryin'..." He swiped the weapon against the doors in frustration and panic. "Let me in!" he shouted, contemplating putting a bomb in the door, but then there would be no way to close it. He jammed the blade in between the two doors and they slid apart automatically. Link looked aghast in amazement for a second. "Wow. That never works for me in my world."

Without wasting another moment, he resheathed the sword, picked up Roll, and half-dragged, half-carried her into the hallway. As he set her down he said, "Now how do I close them?"

Mega Man, running for his life, appeared in front of the doors, a little shot up, but none the worse for wear. The clear doors opened automatically for him and he pushed into where Link was standing. He pressed a black box on the wall similar to the one in the foyer. "Emergency door close. Code 417X9A."

"Compliance," a voice from above said. Link figured it was the Computer. It sure seemed to be everywhere there was a structure. And it always sounded different.

The thick gray metal doors shushed close and locked together.

"You all right?" Link asked.

"Not bad. I destroyed the robots, but there could be more on the way. I think this'll keep us safe though." Mega Man pressed the green pad with his hand and a holographic screen illuminated in front of Mega Man's eyes. Link, who was knelt on the floor beside Roll, keeping her head up, was taken aback at this display. It was some sort of half-formed screen, like a ghost.

"Security directory," Mega Man spoke. "Clearance four-nine-two-eight-five-eight-nine." The display changed and Mega Man inspected the data. "Enforce security lockdown 1A, code beta-zero-gamma-alpha-pi-theta. Engage."

"Security lockdown priority alpha engaged," the Computer said.

"We're good now. There's enough protection around that it'll take a large army to get in. We'll know about any attempts to penetrate the defenses." He knelt down to Roll and held up a hand to her cheek. It was frozen solid. Hopefully, the material of her skin wouldn't crack when she thawed. He flipped open a panel near his waist and pulled out a cord from inside his body. Turning up a parallel panel on his sister, he inserted the cord, connecting the two of them. "Okay, let's see what's wrong."

Mega Man stared off into space, doing whatever he was doing silently and unobtrusively. Link finally got a chance to really look at Roll as Mega Man worked. She was blond and had a youthful, bright appearance in her face, like a younger Zelda. She had deep, but blank green eyes staring up at the ceiling, encrusted with melting ice. Her lithe body was enveloped in a tight eccentrically colored purple and green suit, armored with what looked like chain-mail plates around her arms and legs, and a semblance of a helmet.

"You can turn off your thermal shield now," Mega Man commented. Link, who had nearly forgotten he was wearing one, looked to his belt and pushed the button he had hit before. The warm temperature around him dissipated, replaced with a bit colder, but tolerable air.

"What are you doing?" Link asked when Mega Man hadn't said anything for a while.

"I'm trying to figure out why she won't move. It looks like her battery froze. I'll have to start her back up again when she warms up."

Link thought for a second, then took off his thermal shield belt and handed it to Mega Man.

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary. Besides, you need it more, and the more heat it generates the less life-span it has." Link nodded and put it back on. He stared down at Roll's face, into her eyes, waiting for her to jump to life. Mega Man started steadily streaming some of his power into her battery, giving it some energy to start out with. Too much would have caused an overload and possibly a leak.

"Come on," Mega Man whispered. Roll's eyes remained steadily blank. Suddenly, Mega Man felt a spark of power jump to his cable, indicating that she wasn't totally gone. Link noticed a light coming back into her eyes.

"There we go," Mega Man said. He communicated to Roll over his cable connection. _Hey, sis, it's me. Don't get up, you're frozen solid. Just wait to get warm._ "She'll be okay," he told Link. "She just needs time to start up her systems again." Link figured the cord he connected to her had something to do with knowing she was awake. It must have been some sort of communication medium. "Can you find some humans and see if they'll help us? This could take awhile," Mega Man asked.

"Uh, there's no robots anywhere around here, are there?"

"No, no malevolent ones. I did a scan when I turned on the security grid. You're free to walk about the base. The command center should be on the second floor."

Link hoisted himself up and walked down the hallway, leaving Mega Man and Roll behind. Using his natural navigation instincts he turned left at the T-intersection and followed that down a ways, past meaningless doors, all of which were locked. It curved into some sort of operation room, where there were no humans, but plenty of signs of them, with discarded papers and coffee mugs spilt onto the floor. It looked there may have been a scuffle, or the people left in a hurry. He walked past the open room and into another with some offices, and past that into a laboratory. He hadn't found any stairs yet though, or any way to get to the second floor. "Where is this command center?" Link said to himself.

He heard a bleeping noise up above, causing him to stop in his tracks. "Hello?" he said. "Is someone there?" he said with paranoia.

"The command center is on level two in the northern quadrant."

"Is this the Computer?"

"Yes. This is a model JKL 4598-2, using a Decalins class operating system. Would you like to hear more details?"

"Uh, no, not really," Link said, figuring they were irrelevant and he wouldn't understand them anyway. The Computer must have been communicating with him telepathically since he saw no one making a voice. "Can you help me?" He tried to keep his answers as succinct as possible as not to anger it with inconsequential things.

"What would you like to know?"

"Where is the command center?"

"The command center is on level two in the northern quadrant."

"Where's that?"

Another bleep. "Would you like have me show you the way?"

"Yes, that'd be great."

The wall next to him started blinking in red arrows in a strip of black in the middle of the partition that ran all through the hall. "Please follow the red arrows to arrive at your destination."

"Thank you."

Link did as the Computer said, following the red arrows down the hallway, leading him into an area he had not seen before. The arrows stopped at a gray double door that was the width of a single. There was no doorknob Link could find, and he figured perhaps it would open automatically. He wound up bumping into it. "Open the door?" he asked politely. He pushed on the door. "Computer, can you please open this door?"

"Affirmative."

The door slid apart. If the Computer could open locked doors for him he was going to have to get one for his next adventure. Link poked his head into the tiny room with no way out. "Is this the command center?" he asked incredulously.

"This is an elevator."

"Oh," Link commented. An elevator, of course, he was familiar with those. He stepped in and turned around to face the doors, which closed after a second. He stood there. Nothing happened. Perhaps he needed to tell it what to do. "Take me to the command center, please."

The elevator whirred in response and he could feel himself being lifted upwards. Apparently, the Computer was all-knowledgeable, but needed to be told what to do to an annoying degree.

The elevator stopped whirring and opened its doors in a completely new area of the building. The same red arrows were waiting for him, chasing in the appropriate direction.

"Thank you," Link said again.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the primary hallway inside the door, on the cold ground. Mega Man continued waiting patiently for Roll's functions to complete processing. When she sent him a message over their connection he nearly jumped. _Rock?_

 _Yes, Roll, I'm here._ It looked like her communication functions had completed primary start up. She could communicate on a rudimentary level.

 _You're all right?_

 _Yes, I'm fine._

 _What happened? The last thing I remember was I was out in the snow looking for Wily's base._

 _I think you froze your components. Parts of your programming stopped, then your motor functions, and then it had kind of a snowball effect, pardon the pun. You wouldn't have known you were freezing until it was too late. But there wasn't any permanent damage._

 _What happened to you?_

 _It's a long story._ Mega Man repeated what he had told Dr. Light earlier, changing some elements here and there, and ending it with their entrance into the research base.

 _And he's here now?_ Roll asked. _You just sent him out there alone?_

 _He'll be fine, trust me. I've seen him in battle. He's much more agile than you or I._

 _Well, don't say that till you've seen me in action,_ she indicated with a hint of smirkiness.

 _Ah, yes, your upgrades. So what did Dr. Light do for you?_

 _Everything. My sensors are enhanced, my helmet gives me extra vision, and I have two laser pistols for my weapons. Dr. Light did a good job, working with what he had, which was essentially parts in the garage. The only thing he neglected was temperature control,_ she joked.

 _I see. And you decided to try and find Wily on your own._

 _I'm just as capable as you now, you can check the specs yourself. Don't take this one mistake as proof I'm inept. It's just a design oversight. You made plenty of mistakes over time._

 _I didn't say that. I'm sure you are capable. But what you did was risky. Even I don't fight until I need to._

 _I know, but I didn't know where you were. I thought you were dead or disappeared. I had no way to contact you. I didn't know if you were coming back._

Mega Man thought that was justified. When the most capable is absent, the next most capable takes over. _I understand. I would do the same thing. Did you find his fortress?_

 _Not yet. Has he done anything yet?_

 _Not that I know of. What about the vase Dr. Light mentioned?_

Roll communicated her information about Dr. Selkirk and the code on the vase to Mega Man. Roll was hoping her brother had something to contribute, but unfortunately, he had no conclusive evidence to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.

 _Why in the world would Wily take a vase?_ Mega Man wondered.

 _That's what everybody's been asking._

 _I think the key lies in the binary code. We should run it though some testing when we get back._

 _Okay._

 _Roll._

 _Yeah?_

 _I'm glad you're all right._

 _Same to you, bro._

* * *

Link's helpful arrows led him to a big door in the center of the complex, just where he would expect a command center to be. "Open door, please," Link commanded as he set in front of it.  
The door opened just a finger's width and buzzed. Link was starting to recognize that sound as something unpleasant happening. This time it appeared to be that the door couldn't open all the way. "Open the door all the way."

The door buzzed again. "This door is experiencing an error. Please contact a maintenance worker to have this fixed," the Computer said.

"Where can I find a maintenance worker?"

"Maintenance workers are available between the hours of 900 to 2000. In the event of an emergency, leave a message with the maintenance department and they will get in touch with you as soon as possible."

"I don't have time for that. I need it open right now. Please?"

"Maintenance workers are available between the hours of 900 to 2000. In the event of an emergency, leave a message with the maintenance department and they will get in touch with you as soon as possible."

"Yes, yes, but is there any way it can be open now?"

"This door is experiencing an error. Please contact a maintenance worker to have this fixed."

"What if I just open it like this?" gripped both sides of the door and pushed. The sliding mechanism gave way to his strength slowly. As soon as it opened to a body's width he wedged himself inside and pushed it all the way open. With an exasperated grunt he adjusted his tunic and turned inside the room.

The layout looked like the bridge of a ship. And there were humans here, but they were draped across the consoles, splayed out on the floor, lacerated and burned. Link put a hand to his mouth, never seeing this sort of horror before. They were all dead.

 **Next Chapter: Waiting for Mega Man**


	38. Waiting For Mega Man

After Link had come back to Mega Man to report his findings, i.e., the dead scientists, they went off to explore and inspect the research base for survivors or remnant robots. They found none. It appeared that the research base had been abandoned and Wily's robots killed the remaining humans when they invaded. It was probably an effort to avoid detection of his armament deployment. The three of them were the only living residents left. If Wily's robots knew they were there, they would come back in droves to get in.

Mega Man had gone off on his own to find a mode of transportation out from the base, to try and get to another sanctuary. He asked Link to watch over Roll as she completed her start-up. Her systems were mostly online now, and it was just a matter of her performing diagnostics and tests to make sure she was back to fighting form.

They sat at a table in an alcove of the cafeteria, overlooking a window at the edge of the base, so they could keep an eye on the outside. Link was peering out into the pitch-blackness with a vengeance, scanning back and forth for anything that wasn't black or white. A part of him was still determined to show Mega Man he could be useful in this world of super-enhanced beings. He could live up to his legacy of a legendary hero.

Snow was still falling down in torrents, obscuring their vision. Roll knew that Link wouldn't be able to see anything before the security scanners did.

"Here," she said as she handed him a mug of steaming black water. Link took the cup and looked into it. The smell was appetizing, to say the least.

"What does this do?"

"It's coffee. It has a chemical in it that keeps you alert and awake. Be careful, it's hot."

Link slowly tipped the potion up to his lips and immediately pulled it away when it burned to the touch. "Ow. It's hot."

"Wait for it to cool." Roll pulled the emergency blanket off her seat and sat back down in the chair, pulling the mantle back over her so she could warm up. They sat staring out the window for a few moments, each wondering where Mega Man was and if he was safe and if Wily knew of their presence here and there was an army of robots ready to invade and attack.

"So," Link said, watching steam rise from the cup. "How are your diagnostics going?"

Roll was performing her tests internally. "So far, so good. Nothing that can't be corrected. I'll need to get some minor repairs once we get back though."

Link stared down into his coffee potion. "So... you and Mega Man are siblings."

"Uh-huh."

"Are you older or younger than him?"

"We were activated at the same time. But according to our logs, his starts at 12:51.545335 and mine starts at 12:51.569395. So technically, he could be considered older."

"How old are you? I mean, how long have you been alive... or... sorry, I'm still not really clear on the whole robot thing."

"I understand. Mega Man and I have been operational for 17 years."

"Uh-huh, and you started off the way you look now. I mean, you didn't grow up like us."

"Right. Well, Rock wasn't always like you see him. We both look like normal humans without our armor on, before we got changed to fighting robots."

"Rock, I keep hearing that, what is Rock? Is that Mega Man?"

"Yes, Rock was his name before he was changed into Mega Man. Most of the world calls him Mega Man, but us who knew him before typically call him Rock."

"So Mega Man's world-renowned here?"

"Oh, yes, he's basically the most important character in the world right now, because of his heroics. He gets asked to many social functions, people try to get his influence on important topics and politics and such."

"Yeah, we were talking about that some in Hyrule. I've got sort of the same thing going in my land. It's hard to walk around without being treated like royalty. I hate being worshipped like a god."

"Well, in this case, Mega Man is a god."

"What?"

"Well, since he has superior abilities to humans, some see him as the messiah. There are some cults dedicated to worship of him. People send him gifts. At some points they've camped outside our house. But they're rather few and far between. And then there are some people on the other side of the spectrum who fear him, hate him. The world's rather confused about how to treat him." Roll looked away with anger. "Which is really a shame, because he's done so much for the world."

"They hate him? How could they hate him?"

"They hate him because they're afraid of him. They fear what he could do, since he's so powerful."

"But he's so similar to humans, I mean, except for the arm cannon and weird clothes. I didn't even know he was a robot until I saw his insides."

"They know the difference here. People are so used to seeing robots they can distinguish their mannerisms."

"Mega Man told me you work and live in harmony."

"For the most part, yes, but robots are subordinate to humans. They work for humans, because humans made them. But many fear they could take over, because humans built them with superior abilities to their own."

"Why would humans build something superior to themselves, if they were so afraid of it taking over?"

"Because of all the good they could do. Robots can do things humans can't because of their abilities, and that's what makes them so valuable. And so dangerous. That's why robots are programmed with the three laws."

"Three laws?"

"There are three laws of robotics which all robots are, by law, required to have in their programming, and organized in order of importance. The first is that a robot must not cause harm to a human, either by action or inaction. The second is that a robot must always obey a human's orders, except where that comes into conflict with law one. The third is that a robot must protect its own existence, so long as that does not come into conflict with laws one or two respectively."

Link pondered these statements for a moment. "Aren't these laws kind of vague? I can see lots of situations where those 'laws' could be conflicting."

"And there have been many. The laws are under constant scrutiny, and there's a whole constitution dedicated to clarifying when and where certain laws must be excepted and such. But the basic message is the same." Roll strategically neglected to mention her and her brother's own unknown exception to the laws. She was conflicted between telling her brother and letting his ignorance protect him.

"What if you programmed a robot to not follow laws?" Link asked.

"The government requires all robots of a certain level of artificial intelligence to be programmed with the three laws. And they're checked before they're made fully operational."

"What if you told a robot to tell a lie? What if a robot had to kill someone to prevent him from killing other innocent people?"

"There are many details about those questions that get rather complicated, but for the most part, programming sticks to the letter of the law. Robots have the ability to process the laws in a very sophisticated manner."

"It seems like a very slippery slope."

"It is. And it's not just humans. Many robots live in fear of being a situation that their laws would come into conflict with. It could completely undo their programming and they'd have to be destroyed. The country's very divided on how to treat them. But by now society is so dependent on robots for the quality of life they have, they couldn't get rid of them if they tried. Citizens would object."

"So humans live in constant fear of masters becoming the slaves."

"No. Not really. Because robots cannot exceed their programming by themselves. Anyone who works with robots, which is nearly everyone, are very comfortable working around them. They are intelligent tools to get the job done easier. And most humans treat them with respect. But as a general populace, the world regards them with a wary eye."

"So you just put a band-aid on it to make you sleep at night? That doesn't seem right."

Roll shrugged. "It's the best people can do."

"Well, hasn't it ever happened before? With a robot breaking the laws?"

"Many times. That's why Rock is so revered. He's the one that stopped robots from taking over."

Roll was speaking so objectively about her own kind. If Link had to make the same arguments, he would undoubtedly be biased towards defending Hylians, but he guessed Roll was so programmed that she could control herself to have no bias.

"So it has occurred?" Link asked.

"Over and over again. And always by one single man - Dr. Albert Wily. He was Dr. Light's partner. But he went insane." There were many details about the circumstances of Mega Man's origin Roll was leaving out, but for the interest of brevity and simplicity, it was necessary. "He programmed robots like Mega Man to annex key structures on the planet so he could take over the world, to make robots the dominant species. That's when Rock volunteered to be transformed into a fighting robot."

"Wait, Roc- Mega Man volunteered to be reprogrammed? I thought robots worked for humans. They had to do what humans tell them."

"They do, but they also emulate desires and feelings to a certain degree. It's hard to explain without giving you an advanced course in artificial intelligence. But Rock always had a strong sense of justice. That's why he wanted to be the one to stop Dr. Wily. When Dr. Wily started the first robot revolution, he took all the advanced robots he and Dr. Light had and reprogrammed them. Rock was the only one to resist that. I guess that made Dr. Light think he was special or something, and allowed him the opportunity to do something about it."

"So a human fixed robots so they would kill humans? That's rather ironic. Why? If humans think robots are servants?"

"Some also think robots are superior and deserve to be the dominant species on the planet, going so far as to sacrifice humans' own dominance. No one really knows why Wily does it. He's clinically insane."

"So to stop Dr. Wily, Mega Man was forced to kill those robots? His own kind? Doesn't he have any problems with that?"

"Not really," Roll said, "Robots don't have feelings of loyalty to a certain group, just because they belong to it. They are completely objective. But Rock believed robots and humans could live in harmony. And Dr. Wily was upsetting that, so Mega Man swore to stop him."

"So that's what he meant," Link thought, remembering the conversation they had in the temple where they found the lore of his legacy. "When he said he had to constantly be fighting. That Dr. Wily always comes back."

"He does always seem to come back. But Mega Man will keep fighting him until he's put away for good." Roll thought of a lie. "He can't kill him because of the laws. So Wily often manages to escape."

"If it was me, I would have destroyed him regardless of the laws."

Roll was forced to lie again. "He can't do that because of his programming. He can't do what he's not programmed to do." Roll was beginning to see this snowballing out of control. One lie on top of another. How long could she keep this up? Maybe if she kept saying it she could convince herself that her brother really was still under control of the three laws.

Link looked down into his nearly-cooled coffee. "And the laws keep him from hurting anyone? That seems kind of stupid."

"It's what the humans decided on." Secretly, she agreed. It was stupid that Mega Man would have to keep fighting Dr. Wily forever because he could never put that final stop to it. So Dr. Wily would always be protected behind his expendable robots. If it was her...

"It's like a rhino's bargain," Link said.

"I'm sorry?"

"Oh, that's a Hylian expression for an impossible situation."

"Yes, that's exactly what it is. But these are the exception to the rules. For the most part, humans and robots live together peacefully. It's only those few bad apples that spoil the whole bunch."

Link paused. "He never told me. When he was trying to describe his life, to compare it to mine, he never told me he was fighting for a world that hated him. If I lived in a world where they were going to be so ungrateful for me risking my life for them, I would just stop." He cradled his coffee in his hand and looked outside. "Maybe that's kind of insensitive of me, but I'm not really keen on sacrificing myself when no one's going to appreciate it." Link thought of the legend, that he would have to keep on fighting across generations. At some point, at least he would be able to rest and another would take over the fight. "At least in my world people like me. I don't think I could do it here."

"I'm sure Rock is conflicted about it as well, but he would never admit it. His sense of justice is too strong. That's why he wins each time. He's fighting for his ideals, not the people."

"But he loses each time, because he's restricted by the laws. So it's a cycle. So you'll never be at peace."

Roll shrugged. "I guess you could see it that way. But it's better that the laws are in place than not. Otherwise, mass chaos would likely rule, rather than stopping one madman."

Link continued, "Mega Man was telling me about the legend of Pinocchio, about a wooden puppet that became real. And he had to have a cricket for conscience. I guess that's sort of what those laws are - artificial conscience. To act as protection for humans who are too scared of robots and them taking over. If all the laws are in place, I just don't understand how humans here can be so fearful and hating of robots."

Roll looked into the window with a forlorn expression. Maybe there was another way of making Link understand. "There is another legend here, I don't think Mega Man told you about... Frankenstein." She turned back to Link who was eager to hear the story. "Long, long ago, probably from a society similar to yours, there was once a doctor who wanted to create a human being from parts of the dead, to give life to non-life, to discover the secret of creation. But when he succeeded, he was horrified by the monster he created and it ran away. The monster, shunned, rejected, and confused, accidentally killed some of the townspeople because he had no sense of his own strength or of morality, since he was practically a newborn with the strength of a man. The citizens of the town became angry and chased him back to the castle of his creator where they set it on fire and burned the two to death."

The two sat in silence for a minute, contemplating the meaning of the story.

Link said, "So there are two sides to everything."

Roll nodded. "Robots are complex machines. People made us too smart, too quick, and too many and we suffer for their mistakes. People fear what they don't understand. Then the fear grows to hate."

"It must be horrible to be so important, and have people hate you for it." He took a sip from the now luke-warm coffee. Quickly he spat out the bitter taste and spilled the mug on the floor. "Acck, it's poisoned."

"No, it's just bitter."

"Is this what you drink here?"

"I don't drink anything, but many humans like it."

"I think I'll just die of thirst, thanks."

"There're many other drinks for you."

"Well, I've never drank a revitalizing potion so bad before," Link said he wiped his mouth.

"It's not really a potion..." Roll started to say. Just then she received a communication from Mega Man.

 _Roll?_

 _Yeah?_

 _Can you bring Link down to the hangar. I think I might have found a way out._

 _No problem._

 _Okay, see you in a bit._

Link looked curiously at Roll as she stared blankly into space.

"I just got a message from Mega Man," she explained. "He says he found a way to get out. Come on."

"All right." Link picked up his equipment and followed her out of the room. She took him down the elevator to an underground hangar where Mega Man was waiting for them next to a small vehicle. It reminded Link of a flat, squished horse. Roll recognized it as a snow-skidder. It was meant for two people though. They were going to have to huddle up on it.

"It's fueled up," he shouted across the vast, echoing room. "I just need the doors open and we can get out of here."

"Right, I'm on that," Roll said and went into a room nearby with clear glass paneling so they could see what she was doing.

Mega Man waved Link over to him. "Does this fly too?" the Hylian asked, feeling the tightness in his stomach.

"No, it glides across the snow. Some people report the sensation as flying." Mega Man hoisted his leg onto the driver's seat and gripped the handlebars. Link seated himself behind as he would on a saddle as the robot turned a knob on the control panel. A great big sound erupted from the skidder. Link covered his ears in pain, and felt the seat below him vibrate violently.

"Hold on tightly to my stomach," Mega Man yelled over the din. Link regretfully removed his hands from his ears and wrapped them around Mega Man's cold metal armor.

 _Roll, get behind Link, that way he has a lesser chance of falling off._

 _Right._

The large double doors began to pull apart slowly. Snow started blowing into the base, frosting Link's cheeks.

"Thermal shield time." Link hit the button on his waist and the sphere enveloped him once again in comforting warmth.

"Good idea," Mega Man said.

Roll came out of the control room and headed to the skidder, hopping in behind Link. Link straightened up nervously as she put her hands under his arms, more alert than the coffee would make him.

"Okay, everyone, hang on," Mega Man said as he hit buttons and switches across the board, "This might be kind of fast."

He gripped a large lever on the floor and pushed it forward. The skidder started moving ahead, fish-tailing faintly from the standstill acceleration. The engine sputtered at a higher frequency and started propelling them out of the shadowed hangar. Wind permeated Link's shield, nearly blowing his cap off. Floodlights from all around the airport were lit up and giving off tons of light. Mega Man pushed the skidder forward faster in order to get them out of there before the robots found them.

"Faster, Mega Man," Roll uttered in fear.

"I'm trying. It's not an advanced craft. I need more speed."

Link was gripping onto Mega Man tightly enough to crush a like-like as the ground rushed faster and faster beneath them, inches from his boots.

"Uh, I think we should slow down actually. I think we're going too fast," Link said through gritted teeth.

"We haven't even reached top speed yet. This is only 5 of the speed we were going in the metonicle."

"Oh boy..." he said with fright.

"I think we're gonna make it," Mega Man said, looking around.

Suddenly, a yellow globule rushed past Mega Man's nose.

"What was that?" Link asked.

Mega Man looked behind him, there was a robot shaped kind of like a snow skidder speeding towards them. It was like he was built into the vehicle. "We've been spotted. Hang on." Mega Man tilted the handlebars to the left, trying some evasive maneuvers. The skidder took a sharp turn to the left to avoid the ground fire. The pursuer kept on them and continued shooting at them.

"Rock, what are we gonna do? We're sitting ducks up here!" Roll shouted.

"I know! I can't shoot and drive at the same time!"

"We can't outrun him!"

"I know!"

"No problem!" Link shouted. He dove into his knapsack and pulled out a round, black sphere with a string coming out. Finally, he had something they didn't.

"What's that?" Roll shouted.

"Your ticket outta here." He pulled on the wick and it ignited. "Bombs away!"

He tossed the globe over his head. It sailed in the air and dropped directly on the enemy just as it barreled through. The bomb exploded with tremendous force, and the skidder spun like a top, out of control, finally bursting into a snowdrift.

"Yeah!" Link said as he pumped his fist. "Got him! I am useful!"

"What?" Mega Man asked.

 **Next Chapter: Home Alone**


	39. Home Alone

"All right, now slip the RADSL under the relational OLAP and connect those two wires."

Mega Man grabbed the cord and delicately slipped it under the cross-ways pipe that acted as a joint reflexer. He navigated the needle-nose pliers under the same rod and injected the cord back into the socket.

"Roll, can you sense the connection?" Dr. Light said.

"Yes."

"Okay, can you start up your ScanRISC program and see if the connections are back up."

"They are."

"Okay, now, Rock, take that OLR modulator and adjust her variance frequency with it."

Link stared on in dumb disbelief. He hadn't understood a single word any of them had said so far. The Dr. Light avatar was being displayed in the Computer screen and was instructing Mega Man on how to fix Roll. She had apparently suffered many minor malfunctions during her freezing time and Mega Man insisted that she was repaired back to her standard before he let her out of the house again. Link guessed it was because Roll was so headstrong. The Hylian sat in a corner with his chin leaning on his fist, extremely bored at hearing the acronyms flung back and forth. Programming must have been one of the most tedious roles to take in this society, like accounting.

"Try a diagnostic now, Roll," Dr. Light said from the screen.

Roll closed her eyes, performing the tests internally. "I think it's working now. No errors reported."

"One hundred percent?"

"Yes."

"Excellent. All right, that was the last thing we needed to repair. Right, Roll?"

"Yes, I feel back to standard operating now." She took one of her reacquired pistols out of the holster and spun it around her finger. "And ready for action." She jumped down off the table and shut the panel on her arm where Mega Man was tweaking before. "Should we come over now?"

"Yes, by all means."

Mega Man turned to Link. "All right, Link, we're gonna teleport to Dr. Light's hospital room now. Is it all right to leave you alone here?"

"Yeah, that's fine. You won't be gone long?"

"No. We just have to discuss what happened in detail. Compare notes, as it was."

"That's fine. I don't need a babysitter."

"All right." Mega Man neglected to mention that he had set the child safety parameters on the manor for Link. "We'll contact you if we need to. Just follow the instructions on the computer screens if you need help. They'll all over the mansion."

"Ready?" Roll said.

"Yes."

Dr. Light's image winked out. Both Roll and Mega Man's forms shifted and became pillars of red and blue light respectively, They shot up into the ceiling and disappeared, leaving Link all alone.

"Finally," he said as he rubbed his hands together. "Time to explore."

His stomach then started rumbling.

"I guess I mean, time to eat," he said as he looked down at his empty gut. "Wonder what they eat here. I hope it's not all robot food."

He got up and exited the laboratory. "Computer, show me to food."

The chirpy female voice of the manor's Computer piped up. "Where do you want me to show you?"

"To food. I'd like some food please." Link was wondering why he had to speak vocally to the Computer when it could respond telepathically. Maybe it had ears, but no mouth. Plus it seemed to have a different voice every time. Maybe there were multiple Computers, one for each building.

"Would you like to hear a list of restaurants in the area?"

"No, I just want some food. This is a big place, doesn't it have a kitchen?" This Computer was starting to frustrate Link. Maybe he wouldn't get one to take back home.

"This manor is equipped with a room for preparing meals."

"Good! Where is it?"

"From your current location, exit the room, turn right, continue on past three room, turn left, continue on for two rooms, turn right."

"Thank you." Link finally said. Remembering the instructions, he walked out and turned right. Walking past some luxurious rooms, he stopped where the directions ended and faced a smaller version of the castle's kitchens. There must have been a small amount of people living here to warrant such a tiny kitchen. This place could probably only feed a family's worth.

There was an island in the middle with concentric circles on it and some other appliances which were unknown to him. But rifling through cabinets and drawers he could find no food, only utensils and strange devices, some of which he thought it better not to ask questions about.

"Um, where's the food?"

"Food is located in the kitchen pantry."

"But I'm in the kitchen."

No response.

"Well, you're a big help," Link said idly as he opened a door at random. It looked like a walk-in closet with hundreds of little cubbyhole drawers up to the ceiling, and one large one in the middle.

"This is certainly interesting."

Going by instinct he looked at the central cubbyhole. There were several buttons on the device, so he pressed the biggest one. It buzzed with discontent. He hit some more buttons, each buzzing unpleasantly until one said "Please state selection."

Link was a bit confused. "You mean food? Ah, what's good here?"

"Please state selection."

"Um, all right, I'll have an apple."

The machine whirred for a second and deposited an apple in the screen. Link, flabbergasted, pulled on the handle to open the drawer. Delighted his food came so fast, he bit into it. It was just about the sweetest, juiciest apple he had ever tasted.

"Wow, this is great? Can this thing get me anything I want?" He pressed the button again. "I want a chopped sirloin and mushrooms with romani cheese."

It buzzed in discontent. "Chopped sirloin not found, romani cheese not found."

"Hmm, guess not everything," he mused to himself. "How about some baked cucco in glazed mustard with a side of pineapple rings?" He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips as he thought of the meal.

It buzzed again. "Cucco not found. Pineapple available not in specified format. Do you wish to proceed?"

"Uh... yes?"

The screen blacked out again. Link watched and listened as the walls whirred, almost sounding like they were bubbling. Then a healthy pineapple appeared on its side. Link pulled the drawer open and took it out.

"Oh well," he said as he looked at it. "I guess you can only order basic ingredients." He suddenly cursed his inability to cook, wishing he'd taken Zelda's opportunity to show him when he had the chance. "Hmm, what's something I don't get very often? Can you make me a poultry product, uh, baked, with a strawberry tart?"

Amazingly, the machine whirred, the screen blacked out again, and the bubbling in the background sounded. A plate of chicken with stuffing was sitting there, along with a red, crumbly pastry. Link rubbed his hands, thinking he was going to like it here.

Thirty minutes later, after Link had let out his belt and waddled out of the pantry. "Oh, man, I'm going to have to get some recipes from Mega Man before I go back. Phew."

He rolled out of kitchen and wandered down the hall.

"Hm, now what am I going to do?" He passed by some art in the halls and some other decorative touches, inspecting them, not really finding what he was looking for. After some nosy peeking into rooms, he became suddenly aware of the creepy silence invading his ears. Usually, there was some natural noise, either the rushing of the wind or the creaking of a house. Here, it was eerily silent, and even a little boring.

"Hmm, Mega Man said the Computer tell me to do anything I asked it. I wonder... Computer, play some music, please."

"Please specify a genre or station?"

"Uh, genre, what's a genre?"

"A genre is a class of art, or artistic endeavor, having a characteristic form or technique. In colloquial, a type or kind of something."

Link didn't know there were different types of music. Just the kind they play at pubs and the kind they play at royal functions. "Um, just regular music, please."

"Please specify a genre or station."

"Just play whatever everyone listens to here."

"Finding Top 40 station. Mainline 504."

A sudden heart pounding song came ringing through the speakers. It didn't even sound like music to Link, just a lot of beeps and boops, with loud static in the background and some high-pitched girl warbling incoherently. Link put his hands to his ears and nearly dropped to his knees.

"Aggh, no, stop it, stop playing!"

The noise cut out with a wink. If this was what passed for music in this world...

"What do people do for entertainment here?"

"The most popular form of entertainment for this country is holographic television."

"Okay, um, do that."

"Command not understood. Please rephrase."

"Um, how does holographic television work? What do I need to do?"

"Holographic television uses a system tri-point lasers to-"

"No, no, skip that. Just tell me where it is."

"The holographic television is located in the family room. From your current location, turn left, proceed down the corridor and turn right. Enter the room and press the power switch on the holographic pad."

"Okay, family room, family room." Link traversed the rooms until he found something like a disc in the middle of a set of couches. "Interesting." He stepped on the pad, thinking it was something like the teleport device. Nothing happened, so he inspected the disc. There were several buttons and displays on it. He pressed one big green one.

The surface of the disc lit up and a woman began waving her arms frantically in the air.

"Jeez! How did you get here?"

"Are you bothered by feminine itching?"

"...Uh... what?"

"That painful burning sensation. And there's nothing you can do about it."

"...errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."

"Try new and improved Hartaculine 45. It's got oxycetaline and benzoate vitamins."

"I... how did you get here?"

The woman faded out of existence.

"Acck! Wait, where did you go?"

Two women teleported onto the pad, as well as a couch and other objects hanging in mid-air.

"Wait, what's going on?"

"But Tammy says you couldn't go out tonight," one woman said.

"Pfft, you think Dan can keep me here. The Rag Dogs are playing at Club Cadbury. I can't not go!" the other said.

"The Rag Dogs! Hang on, I'll get my money."

Link scratched his head, until he inspected the scene playing before him a bit more. The people and objects were all strangely transparent, as if they were only half there. On an experiment, he stuck his hand through and it passed without resistance.

"Ghosts? I'm watching ghosts put on a play?"

The two ghost women continued talking about sneaking out of the window. They were also apparently oblivious of his presence.

"Man, this world is weird," he said as he sat down on the show, watching the lives of ghosts portrayed through this disc. "But I might as well enjoy it."

* * *

Mega Man and Roll opened the door and peeked inside. "Dr. Light?"

Dr. Light was lying on the bed, his face leaned away on his pillow, apparently sleeping.

"Dr. Light, are you awake?" Roll repeated.

He slowly rolled his head over, sleepiness dragging his eyelids down. "Mmm... Oh, Roll... Rock," he answered hazily. "Rock!" he said as he came to his senses.

"Hi, doctor," he said.

Dr. Light held his arms out for a hug, which Mega Man gave quite willingly. "Oh, it's so good to see you. You are all right, aren't you," he said as he gave a few clanging pats on the metal back.

"Had an interesting time, but I'm okay." I think, he added mentally.

"I want to hear all about it. It was just through the transporter I built?"

"Yes, although now it's destroyed."

"I have no idea what settings it was on the last time I was working on it. The last thing I remember was adjusting something on the primary CPU. Then Roll yanked me out of there. Maybe I bumped an isolinear chip? I wonder if there was a fluke in the polymatrix that-"

"Doctor, we can figure this all out later," Roll said. "But for right now, Link is fine, and time is of the essence."

"Ah, yes. Wily," Light nodded, "This is a most interesting turn that he's taking."

"And I don't think he did it to add to his pottery collection," Mega Man said. "Roll told me what was going on, showed me the evidence. I still think the key is in the binary code."

Roll said, "But we haven't been able to find out what it means."

"Neither have I. But I have been able to do a little more research on Dr. Selkirk." Light picked up his movable display screen by the attached bendable arm and rotated it so that all three could see. Mega Man moved around the bed so that Dr. Light was in between him and his sister.

"I looked up some newspaper articles, read some of his technical documents, white papers, um... his autobiography."

"His autobiography was 2.4 million words long!" Roll said.

"I get very bored here in the hospital. I'm surprised I haven't made schematics for a time machine yet. Anyway. Here's the long and skinny of it." Roll meekly smiled as she heard Dr. Light mix his metaphors. The human brought up an image of Dr. Selkirk. He had thick square glasses, greasy straight black hair, and a confident smirk.

"He was a premier roboticist as you know. I had the... uh, experience of seeing him at some conferences. Early in his career. He was a very dynamic individual. He was a genius at artificial intelligence. Spoke a lot about the future of robotics."

"Dr. Light, I think we're just looking for the facts at hand," Mega Man said.

"Ah, yes. So," he scrolled through some of the documents he had saved to his personal folder. "Went to school at Oxford, got his Ph. D. at Cambridge. Got his second at Harvard. Got his third at Yale. You can see he was quite a genius. And of course, various awards. Accomplishments." He waggled his finger and glanced at Rock. "Now this is the interesting part. During the last part of his career, before he died, he released some white papers of his experiments at putting a human brain inside a robot. He called it the 'ghost in the shell' project."

"He wanted to put a human brain inside a robot?"

"That's about the summary of it. It was hard to decipher his notes about it, they were half lab report, half ranting about other roboticists trying to steal his work... and half trying to order a danish."

Mega Man jerked his head back in confusion.

Roll said, "Uh, Dr. Light, that's more than two halves."

"I know! That's how crazy this guy was." He brought up the cover page of the offending article. "He basically said that if a robot was sophisticated enough, and had something similar to the synaptic nerve pathways humans use for motor functions, there was no reason that a brain couldn't be used to operate a robot, like a brain operates a human body. And it was pretty much a plug and play operation."

"Drop the brain in the robot, make the connections, and watch it go," Rock interpreted.

"Exactly, so, what mad scientist do we know who would want something like that?"

"Wily," Mega Man said with grim attitude.

Roll said, "Wily was a fanatic about robots, but would he actually want to become one?"

Mega Man looked up at her. "Imagine Wily's brain inside something like me. Or bigger."

"Ah."

"All right, so Wily wants to put his brain, or maybe multiple brains, inside a robot." Mega Man had to keep himself from shuddering at the thought. "That doesn't really explain why he stole the vase. I mean, all this information is freely available online. What does the vase, or the binary code have to do with it?"

"Hmm... we have to think like Wily on this one. If I was a power-mad maniac, what I want to do with this? I'd want to find all the information I can... and then destroy it so no one can trace me."

"All the information he can? Is a vase he made really that significant?"

"It might if Wily knew the binary code was on it."

"Well, if he wanted to find all the information he could, then he'd go to every single site connected to Dr. Selkirk, like his house."

"Aha!" Dr. Light entered some information into his computer and looked up Dr. Selkirk's residence. "I bet Wily visited there, I bet. Hmm, yes, let's see." He clicked around. "Oh," he said dejectedly. "It looks like his house eventually burned down. Now it's a parking lot." He thoughtfully brought up some pictures. "A nice parking lot, but still a parking lot. Wow, look at all those spots."

"Doctor."

"Right, okay, so the house is a bust. And he didn't have a summer home or anything like that."

"Might he have had a cabin in the woods?" Mega Man said.

"Perhaps, but the registrations records don't show anything." Light investigated more. "Wait, the house was burned down after he was arrested, right?" he asked rhetorically. "So all his property would have been seized and auctioned off by the police force."

"But all his documents were taken and made available under the creative commons license," Roll said.

"But what about unpublished material?"

Mega Man and Dr. Light looked at each other. "He had to have a personal computer," the robot said.

"And what happened to that?" Dr. Light accessed the police record files, going back several years in their records. The two robots scanned the lengthy texts looking for signs of clues.

"There, Dr. Selkirk was arrested on December 17th, and there was an auction held a week later. Access that file."

Mega Man pointed and Dr. Light clicked. The file listed all the items brought up for auction, including previous owners. Dr. Selkirk's name speckled the list with odd implements, including a personal computer.

"It sold as a set to... the CORE group."

"What are they?"

"CORE is a non-profit organization for the history of computing, as I recall. I wonder..." Dr. Light minimized the auction information and opened a new search for museums owned by CORE. "Aha, I was right. My hunch was right. The Babbage International Museum of Technology."

"What about it?" Roll asked.

"Of course, they have an exhibit there dedicated to the development of robot A.I. I have some artifacts in there as well. And look what else is there."

Light brought up a promotional picture of the inside of the exhibit. In the middle of the room was a yellowing computer sitting on a desk.

"That's Dr. Selkirk's computer," Mega Man said.

"And it's been untouched since it was seized. The law doesn't require extraction of data or reformatting of equipment for auction. They wouldn't have bothered with something as old as this."

Mega Man said, "So some of Selkirk's data might still be on it."

Roll interrupted, "But he would have protected it with at least 512-bit encryption. There's no way we could get at it without destroying it."

"What do you think the binary code's for?" Light mused.

Mega Man and Roll looked between them. "We have to get to the museum before Wily does!" she uttered, and readied her teleporting system.

"Hold on," Mega Man instructed with his hand held up. "Let's not be too hasty, or we'll alert Dr. Wily that we know. There haven't been any reports of a break-in yet, have they?"

"Nope."

"Good. Doctor, can you tell the museum to put up a low level tachyon field, scattered enough so that it avoids detection for awhile. We'll get down there as soon as we can."

"Why not before I tell them to put up the tachyon field?"

"Because, first we have to get Link."

Next Chapter: Train Ride


	40. Train Ride

Mega Man's blue and Roll's purple-red columns dematerialized in the living room of the mansion. They looked around briefly, making sure everything was as they left it.

"Link?" Mega Man intoned.

He heard some sort of groaning coming from the family room. Mega Man called out "Link? Is that you?"

"In here," came a garbled reply.

Mega Man and Roll followed the voice and found Link watching the holo-vid, stretched out on the couch and holding a bottle of soda.

"Ah, I see you found the holo-vid," the robot said.

"No, no, no! What're you doing?" Link yelled out. "You can't go for it on fourth and ten! Are you daft?"

With curiosity, they examined Link's sprawled out form, boots on the couch, slumped back into the cushions. "Can you believe it? Those tigers are down by three and they're going for it and..." he picked up the remote control from the table and clicked a button. The sports players vaporized and were replaced with two teenage girls sobbing. "And Trina caught Vick kissing another girl. Can you believe that? After she took him to the prom when no one else would go with him... in the rain! How would you feel about that? And then that rude couple talking about their home mortgage loan came in and I don't know what happened after that."

"Uh, Link."

"I tell you, this ghost world is weird, but it sure is fun to watch. It's like a one-way door into a different world. And it's so dynamic."

"Uh, Link, that's not a portal into a ghost world, it's just a holo-vid."

"We'll explain later," Roll said. "We need you to come with us."

"Did you find a way to get me back?"

"No, nothing related to that unfortunately. We've got a bit of a mystery to investigate, figured you wanted some adventure anyway."

"Can I bring my potion?"

"Your what?"

He waggled the glass bottle in front of them. "These things taste great, but I've had four and I still don't feel any effect."

"That's just a beverage, Link. There is no effect... except to make you gassy."

"Oh, well." Link wanted to find out if anything was going to happen to the ghosts of Trina and Vick, but he was also getting an itch to get off his butt and do something. If for nothing else than to walk off the 'soda's. He wasn't going to get any exploring done laying on the couch.

"Eh, why not."

He stood up. "All right, come with us. What'd you do while we were gone?"

"BRAAAAAAP!" Link belched.

The two robots slowly turned back to him. Link made a sheepish grin.

"'Scuse me," he said meekly.

* * *

Mega Man, Roll, and Link stepped out of the hovercar and into the bright sunlight. Link wasn't too scared by the ride over. Mega Man told him it was similar to the hovercraft that was shot down in Antarctica, but slower and meant for city travel. This time though, it was piloted by someone he knew and trusted. Mega Man kept at safe speeds throughout the journey to keep Link from being terrified, much to the chagrin of the cars behind him. Everyone walked or took horses where Link was from, so this was a difficult concept to grasp. Apparently, the cities were so large they needed super fast and maneuverable vehicles, when not using teleporters.

And true to his word, the buildings in this city stretched to the sky. The streets were cleaned and well-maintained. Instead of being trodded dirt, they were made out of some hard material, like an aqueduct filled with a solid substance. But there was nothing natural in the air. It felt like the city was made entirely out of material like building blocks. They were different colors, bright and vibrant, but they were all shaped the same. The streets were synthetic and uniform, the buildings were synthetic and uniform, the people below were synthetic and uniform. They walked from place to place with the same step, the same outfits. The city was arranged in a neat and straight criss-cross pattern, no twists and turns, no dead-ends, everywhere lead to something, designed to maximum efficiency. It would have to be for such a major metropolis, otherwise there would be massive clogging.

Link squinted his eyes in the broad daylight as he stepped out of the cab. This was his first time outdoors in the new world, and he was unaccustomed to the bright sunlight coming down from the thinned ozone layer. He stared at the walkway out to the street as he followed Mega Man's boots.

"It's so bright out. Your sun must be closer to the land," Link said.

Mega Man didn't bother correcting him, mostly because he wasn't sure what the differences were between his and Hyrule's planet. Link's eyes adjusted enough that he could look over the cool green lawn leading up to the train station. It was decorated with hedge animals and flowerbeds. "Those are statues made of plant?" Link asked.

"Shaped out of plant."

"Wow, that's pretty amazing. If you could show me how to do that, the king would be really impressed."

"Yes," Mega Man mumbled. He wasn't quite sure how to break it to him that he might never get back to his world. Apparently, Link was of the mind that once Dr. Light got home, he'd be able to repair the transporter and send him on his merry way. But the machine was in an experimental state, not even completely built. There was no telling how many factors were involved in getting the gate connected to Hyrule. It could have been a one-in-a-billion chance. The android was starting to regret ever taking it at all.

Mega Man paid the tickets for the three of them and then stepped up to the platform and waited. It was a large room with two large grooves formed in the middle. At the bottom of the grooves was a path made of criss-crossed metal and wooden planks, like what was used in rail cars for mining. Other small groups of people were standing around, waiting for something as well. Several of them were standing individually and talking, seemingly to no one. Men wore typically bright, colorful clothes, or drab formal things. The women looked like they were wearing nothing at all. Their clothes might as well have been painted on. It was all Link could do to not stare.

Instead, Link looked around at the various posters, promoting strange products and services. One poster showed a timepiece that could be worn on the wrist, telling you the time no matter where you were, not needing to be outdoors, or build a clock tower. Another exhibited a 'hydrogen reactor' for vehicles like Link had seen before. All of them had that same jump-off-the-wall ghost technology that Link had seen before. Humans must have used ghosts for serving them like robots, but probably employed them with pay, because they weren't created. At least not in the conventional sense.

"Excuse me, do you like medieval history?"

Link turned to the man who accosted him. "Medieval history?" The man was wearing a glowing ring around his neck and a double-breasted black suit modified with buttons on each side, connected with a small rope. "Uh, I guess." Link had a mild interest in historical records, especially the epics and sagas of old. Guess they had the classification of 'mid-evil' here.

"Then you should watch 'The Coming of the King' premiering on Epix. It's found on the history stream."

"Uh... okay."

He left Link and moved on to a different person, who Link overheard asking him another question. Link was about to ask Mega Man what that was all about, but the robot precluded him.

"That was a sutty. They're undercover advertisers who work in social gatherings. They talk about a product as if they were just a normal citizen, but they really work for the company they're advertising."

"He really wasn't very good," Roll interjected.

"No, I could see him a mile away," Mega Man added.

Link felt a rumbling under his feet. Mega Man and Roll started looking down one end of the platform. A great big metal snake was traveling down the path, glaring its one big eye-beam at them.

"That's no rail car." Link's hand grasped the hilt of his sword just as Mega Man stopped him. "Don't worry, it's just another vehicle. It's called a train. It travels on a specified path, carrying either passengers or cargo."

"It's not a monster?" Link asked with reserved ferocity.

"No. Just a vehicle called a train."

"So we're going to have to get inside it?"

"Yes."

"It looks fast."

"It is."

"Goody."

The train silently glided to a halt along the tracks, leaving the doors directly in front of the three. The word 'zephos' was painted in calligraphic script on the side, above the green-blue detailing. Mega Man approached the doors and slipped the ticket into a slot. A small green light blinked and the doors opened. It was hollow on the inside with rows of seats and poles, covered in burgundy upholstery. Link lost track of time, examining the parts of the train, as people entered the vessel. Soon the doors closed and the train's momentum shifted forward. Link grabbed onto a pole to keep himself from falling over.

Link kept his eyes glued to the small square windows as the view changed from the darkness of the station to the white outside, traveling at high velocity. He could feel the vibrating hum of the train, silent as it was, as the train accelerated faster and faster. "So remind me again why we're not teleporting," the Hylian said.

"Too close to teleport," Mega Man answered, hanging onto a rope on the ceiling. Link changed his grip to the same. "We told Dr. Light to get the museum to activate a tachyon field. Besides, the teleporter takes a massive amount of power. Roll and I can teleport, but that would mean we'd have to leave you behind. Also, I didn't want you to get sick again."

"Oh, yeah, not getting sick." Link said as a wave of nausea passed over him as they crossed a bridge, the vast open canyon broadening down and down. To stave off another round of stomach cramps, he focused on reading the advertisements lining the ceiling and upper portion of the cab.

 _Hey, Rock, why aren't we teleporting?_ Roll communicated wirelessly, _I mean, why are we even bringing Link along? Aren't we just wasting time?_

 _You saw me with Light. This is a detective story. I don't have the capacity to figure it out. I don't have the creative thinking. He does. He has the deductive reasoning. I saw it. I could barely survive in the temples he walked through without a second thought._

 _Rock, you're selling yourself short._

 _I'm limited by my programming. You're the same. We can't think creatively. And we need a creative thinker for this._

 _Well, then, why couldn't we just keep a comm line open to Dr. Light and tell him what we're seeing?_

 _Too hard. We need someone to be there with us._

 _And Link is that guy? No offense, but he doesn't know how to lace his treads here._

 _Trust me. I've seen him in action._

Roll communicated a sigh over their wireless connection. _If you say so._

The door at the end of the room opened and a half-size robot moving on wheels rolled down the corridor, shaped slightly like a trashcan, but wider, and with two big glass eyes. It had a flat surface on its head and two thin arms. Link, still looking up, didn't see the robot come up behind him.

"WOULD-YOU-LIKE-A-DRINK-SIR?" it asked mechanically.

Link nearly jumped out of his skin. He flipped around and fell against the wall of the train. "What?" He darted his head down, looking at a canister resting at his feet. It was another robot, not very human-like though. That was what confused him. "Uh, sure."

"OUR-SPECIAL-TODAY-IS-THE-FUZZBUMP."

"Sure, one of those."

A tab with a translucent blue color whirred out from what Link figured was the robot's neck.

"PRESS-THUMB-TO-PAD-TO-PROCESS-AGE-VERIFICATION."

Link, just following instructions, pressed his thumb on the dirty pad, marked with others' fingerprints. The blue light turned green, and a pleasant beep sounded. "AGE-VERIFIED."

Link looked up at Mega Man. "Does it know who I am?"

"Not really, it just knows how old you are by measuring the carbon-44 decay in your body."

"What?"

"It's a way of measuring the age of anything by looking at certain elements in your body and seeing how old they are."

"Oh, interesting."

The robot dropped a cup made of paper into its stomach, then it's esophagus began dribbling a purple liquid down until the cup filled. The robot grabbed it with its claw-like arm and offered it to Link. "YOUR-DRINK-SIR."

"Thanks," he replied. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to drink some sort of robotic byproduct. It could be poisoned. On the other hand, this little guy didn't look very malevolent, and he did drink milk after all. That was an animal byproduct. He took a large sip from the paper cup.

"How is it?" Mega Man asked.

"... spicy," Link replied weakly. In reality, it felt like his tongue had fallen off and his throat was burning away like acid.

"There it is." Roll looked out the window and pointed. A white concrete building was standing there, large steps leading up to roman columns. It was near the destination train station. The train announced that it was reaching its stop, slowed down, and opened its doors to let out the passengers. Mega Man, Roll, and Link were the only ones from their cab who exited the train.

They walked out of the station and onto the street. Link was certain they changed villages, due to the different look of this town. The buildings' colors had been altered dramatically, from pink and blue to golden autumn colors. Besides that, the objects and people floating around looked nearly the same. He saw a robot street-sweeper, squatting over the sidewalk, giant rotating brushes spun out around his feet as he rolled down the street.

Coming out of his distraction, he ran after Mega Man and Roll who had already crossed the street and started walking up to the white steps of the building. Some hanging banners read that it was the 'Babbage International Museum of Computers and Technology'. Maybe it was some sort of shrine or temple. Link hoped he had the right equipment to get in.

"Good morning," Mega Man said to an officer standing next to an archway.

"Morning," the strong-chinned humanoid robot security guard replied.

Roll nodded as she passed under the arch. Link passed and an alarm suddenly emanated from the two guard robots.

"Hold it," one of them said, holding out his palm to stop them.

Link instinctively went for his sword, backing up into a battle stance, keeping Roll and Mega Man at his back.

"Unauthorized lethal devices detected. Please hand it over for inspection."

"What device?" Link said.

"I think he means your sword," Roll said.

"No chance, buddy, I only take my sword off to sleep."

The robot stepped forward. "Failure to turn over your weapon will result in immediate arrest and arraignment."

"Try your best."

"Wait, wait," Mega Man said, stepping in between Link and the officers. "I'll vouch for this. He's authorized to carry the weapons. I invoke code 479A."

"Code recognized. The devices will be permitted as long as they are kept on the person and not left unobserved for more than an hour."

"Understood." Mega Man nodded and turned around, gesturing the two ahead of him to keep moving.

"What was that all about?" Link asked.

"You have some things on you that are considered weapons, like your sword. They're not allowed in places with large numbers of people."

"Oh. In my world, no one goes around without at least a dagger. Just as a practical tool, not even for defense." He turned to Mega Man. "Well, wait, why didn't you get stopped? You have that arm cannon.. Isn't that a lethal device?"

"I don't get stopped because I'm a robot. It's in my programming never to harm humans, the three laws of robotics."

"Ah, yes, Roll told me about them. So you couldn't harm a human even if you wanted to."

"It's not quite a matter of wanting. It's just that I can't. Like no one makes a rule about humans flying because they can't fly. The laws prevent me from doing anything before I even do it."

Roll bit her lip and remained silent.

 **Next Chapter: Link to the Past**


	41. Link to the Past

Mega Man pulled up the red banister and let Roll and Link duck under the velvet rope. The little hanging sign said this section was under reconstruction, but they all knew that not to be true. Dr. Light had told them to section off this part of the museum so they could investigate it. It looked like the museum staff had done their job in an expedient manner. The inlet room had its lights turned off except for the emergency skylights in the ceiling casting dim shadows. Link couldn't really see anything very well, but they all looked like machines and devices on tables or in glass cases. The only thing he had recognized so far was an giant abacus in the entrance hall, meant to be a piece of art.

Mega Man led them to the center of the room, looking inside a glass case. There was a large square-like yellow monitor and a rectangular box next to it. It was situated on a wooden desk with a chair, meant to resemble how a person would have sat at this machine if they were using it for real.

"Well, it looks like we're the first ones here," Mega Man said. "That's a good thing." Apparently, there had been no break-ins, and no attempts to access the computer.

Link read the blurb plaque pasted on the side of the glass, seemingly floating in the air. "Dr. John Selkirk's computer. This was the personal computer of the infamous robot scientist. He designed nearly thirty different types of computer and robot A.I. until his career came to a tragic end, due to mental instability. After his arrest, his property was seized and auctioned off. The CORE group obtained his personal computer seized from his home where he undoubtedly designed many of his schematics."

"Undoubtedly?" Roll asked her brother.

"I guess that proves our theory no one ever looked at it. Probably because of the password needed. And I doubt they had anything compatible to hook it up to for hacking it." He gestured to the archaic looking machine. Any attempts to try and access its data using modern technology would have been fruitless, due to the incompatibility.

The three of them took different sides of the rectangular prism. "How do we open this?" Roll asked.

Mega Man knelt down to the floor. "It's latched into the ground. Let's see." Mega Man gripped his fingers between the glass and the pedestal it was bolted to. His fingertip flipped up and a thin metal reed extended out. He jammed it into the latch and moved it around for a moment. A click sounded and Mega Man took it out, opened the latch, and gripped onto the bottom. "All right, lift."

Roll and Link took both sides of the square and lifted up. Roll easily picked the cage up like it was paper. Link essentially did little more than keep it in balance for her. Once she had it over her head and over the computer she set it down on the side.

Mega Man pulled out the chair and sat down. "Computer." No response. The monitor stayed as a blank screen, and it made no acknowledgement sounds. "Computer?"

"Try that thing," Roll said.

Mega Man picked up the walkie-talkie communicator. "Hello, computer?"

Still nothing. "How did these things work?" he asked.

"Oh, wait, there was a power switch, wasn't there?" Roll said.

Mega Man pressed in the button with the universal symbol for power near the bottom of the monitor. A small LED next to it lit green, then switched to orange.

Roll said, "Orange? That usually means caution."

Mega Man said, "Caution what? It's not like I need to wait for something."

Mega Man tried hitting buttons on the box next to it, front and back. "One of these has to work." He typed onto the keyboard, pressing buttons he didn't recognize that might have activated the power.

"I'm pretty sure this is the power switch," Roll said, pressing one central button on the box. "I don't know why it's not working."

Link looked around the box itself. "What about its tail?"

"Tail?" Mega Man asked.

"Yeah," Link bent down and picked up a black cord. "Should I try yanking it? It could be some sort of pull-cord."

"Oh, right, the power plug. Let's see," he scanned the around the perimeter.

"It looks like it could fit into there," Link said and pointed over to a dark corner of the wall.

"Aha, there's one." Mega Man took the plug and walked over to the dark corner and knelt before it.

"I wonder if this still works. The museum used to use city power before they piped in hydroelectric lighting. Let's see." He pushed the cord into the slots so they lined up. "Now try pushing the buttons."

Roll hit the central button on the box. The light indicator turned green, much to her surprise. It began emitting a loud hum and several clicks. The monitor it was attached to lit up as well. Mega Man came over.

"It's starting up," he said. "Just wait."

The monitor displayed several colorful screens, picturing corporate logos of the software it was starting. A text box appeared, prompting for the input of a password.

"Aha, here we go," he said and typed in the long binary string he had memorized. The text box disappeared and the blue background was replaced with a screen of tiny pictures against one large pattern. They waited for a while, to see if it needed to do anything else, then Mega Man touched the walkie-talkie.

"Computer? Oh," Mega Man uttered in surprise. His touching of the walkie-talkie had moved a tiny arrow on the screen. Mega Man put the device back down, moving it in circles to test his theory. "It's like a touch-screen interface, but you use this instead of your finger."

He moved the pointer to a folder picture marked 'documents' and clicked a button. The icon turned blue, but nothing else happened. Mega Man tried clicking again several times and a white window opened up, filled with more little pictures neatly arranged.

"Man, how did he ever keep things organized?"

"Try that one," Roll said.

Mega Man clicked on some pictures, and some text appeared. The robots skimmed the words. "Nope," they both said.

Mega Man and Roll systematically opened and closed each text document, trying to find some keys to the mystery. Link got bored and started wandering around, looking at exhibits. One looked like a very tall human until he inspected it further. It was a large gray robot, nicknamed Rex. It was the first to have all three laws successfully programmed into its artificial intelligence. Link thought it looked barely human and barely robot, more like a machine tank. Another was a picture on the wall of Johnny - the first 'talk show' chatbot. Link had no idea what a talk show was. But it sounded similar to something he had seen in the ghost world.

"Wait, I know," Mega Man said. Link walked back over to Mega Man working at the computer. "Here's a recently used file list." He moved the pointer to the lower left corner of the screen and a list appeared. He selected one of the items. "I bet this is it." Mega Man expanded the white document and all three of them looked at it.

"It looks like a journal entry, but it's got a lot of technical elements. Like this schematic here. And the date says it was made close to his arrest," he said as he consulted a gray window listing dates.

"Wait a minute. Go back to that," she said as she leaned in closer.

"See, the creation date says it was made fifteen years ago."

"But look at the access date. It says its last access was... fifteen minutes ago?"

"That means someone's been accessing his files before we were."

"How can that be? The museum sectioned off this part. And they've been keeping security watch on it since then."

"I don't know but someone got to these files before we did. I wish I knew how."

"You guys smell something?" Link asked out of the blue.

"Yeah, something definitely smells fishy about this."

"No, not that. I mean something like smoke."

Mega Man and Roll looked at him curiously for a minute then sniffed the air. Something faintly detected of smoke. "Is there a fire?" Roll asked.

"There! The Computer!" Link said and pointed. Black smoke was wisping out of it in thin strands. Mega Man and Roll bolted upright just as the monitor flickered and blinked out.

"There's too much power. It's overheating!" Mega Man said as he realized his mistake. Computers in this age were designed to handle much less power input, and outlets back then produced much less. The little cooling fan inside could never handle that much heat.

The box suddenly erupted in flames. The monitor flickered and switched to a blue screen, then half-white, half-black.

"Aaah, Roll," Mega Man commanded. "The hard drive's crashing. Do something!"

Link pulled out his ice rod from his backpack without thinking. He aimed the crystal ball at its end at the flames and triggered a stream of ice to come out. Nothing happened. Then he remembered his magic wasn't working here and mentally cursed himself again.

"I'm on it." She held out her hand and a jet stream of steam burst forth. From his vantage, Link felt the temperature and realized it wasn't steam but some sort of icy vapor. The computer's flames died down, leaving it coated in white film and scorched on its corners.

Mega Man said, "Great. Now we'll never know who was on it."

"Roll..." Link uttered quietly. "Spray the computer again."

"Why?"

"Just do it," he said, maintaining his gaze.

Roll held out her hand again and sprayed the computer. Then she saw what Link was seeing. The mist was bouncing off some invisible force standing behind the desk.

"What is that?" Mega Man said.

Link backed up next to Mega Man and withdrew his sword. "It's invisible, whatever it is. And I'm willing to bet it's the thing that accessed the file."

"What's it doing? Just standing there?"

"Is it a statue?"

"I can't get anything on my scanners," Mega Man said. "It's projecting an invisibility cloak. All I'm getting is a power generator." He inspected it further. "Which operates remarkably similar to a lot of advanced designs. But it's just floating there. In space."

"It's got to be attached to a robot," Roll said with resolution. "I wonder..." she poked her finger out and touched where she thought the object was. It bounced back. "It's definitely a robot."

"But why hasn't it skedaddled yet?" Link asked.

"Maybe it's a dumb robot," Roll suggested.

"Well, obviously, if it's just standing there," Link retorted. "Go on. Do something," Link goaded him by brandishing his sword. He was used to enemies making the first move, showing their weakness.

"No, I mean it's 'dumb'. It has no processing capabilities, it just accepts output from some other CPU or controlling device."

"Like the remote for the holo-vid," Mega Man amended.

"So this robot's being controlled by someone else?" Link asked. "No artificial intelligence. And it's just standing there because..."

"Because whoever's controlling it hasn't given it any commands."

"I don't think so," Mega Man said, "This robot came here right before we did. Otherwise it would have escaped. Wouldn't it? You'd think whoever's controlling it would have wanted it to escape as soon as it got the information. I think it whoever's controlling it can't give it commands."

"Why?" Link asked.

"Remote interference? Maybe the tachyon field. It's got to be using some sort of undetectable communication."

"Why isn't it doing anything? It's creeping me out."

"It must be really dumb," Roll mused.

"Let's take it back to the lab, I guess. It'll give us a clue to where Wily is."

"Try talking to it," Roll suggested. "Give it a command."

"Decloak," Mega Man demanded. From his vision, the power generator remained still and no change occurred. "It's probably only set to obey commands from its creator."

"Okay, less talk, more action." Link burst out from behind Roll, swinging his sword horizontally. Suddenly the air rushed around the form of a robot, forming a sort of fluid outline of his humanoid body. It was bounding into the air, almost seeming to hover there for a second, well out of Link's sword range. Then it dive-kicked into Mega Man's stomach, knocking him back into a chair, shattering it.

Roll, gasping in surprise, took out her pistol in a flash, and just as she was about to aim it, felt her legs fly out from beneath her. The foe had sweep-kicked her down, disabling her. Link, acting instinctively, swung around with his sword down low, hoping to catch him in the legs. The horrendous sound of metal screeching against metal erupted, yellow sparks flying out, but did nothing to slow down the robot. The watery outline jumped over the Hylian and sped out the door as fast as a robot could, which was near inhuman speeds. Both Roll and Mega Man were just getting up.

"Definitely a Wily robot," Mega Man said.

"Yeah, they have no problem following the third law."

Mega Man shook his head to clear the cobwebs. "Did you see where he went?"

"Yeah. Away," Link said, as he bent down, looking at the metal shavings where he had sliced the robot's foot. There was nothing but charred crumbs in the scatterings, but Link did find a small tuft of gray-brown hair in the midst. He picked it up.

Mega Man helped Roll up and came over. "Great, now we have no leads, no information, and no idea what Wily's up to."

"And a new enemy to deal with," Roll added.

"It's got to have a weakness. We just need to find it," Mega Man said justly. "What have you got there?" he asked Link.

"Not sure. Robots aren't furry, are they?"

"Not generally."

"Then we might not be at a total loss."

 **Next Chapter: Exploring Possibilities**


	42. Exploring Possibilities

"It's hair from some sort of rodent," Mega Man said, examining the video screen coming from the microscope. "That much I can tell so far."

"Why would an invisible robot be holding onto rodent hair?" Link asked.

"It's such a small amount I bet he was just carrying it with him. It's long enough to have been shed off."

"So it was stuck on his boot or something," Link interpreted. "No problem. Where is the region with a lot of rodents?"

"Everywhere. Rodents can inhabit any region in the world, city or country." He put a hand to his chin. "Maybe a cross-reference will reveal more information." He used the computer to access files of the natural history museum, bringing up an image of the hair they had gotten with files from the Institute of Natural History.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm comparing samples of rodent hair to our sample."

"You can do that just like that? Jeez, no wonder you're so smart. You have instantaneous access to all the information in the world."

Mega Man had never thought about it like that, but yes, he was lucky to have such fast resources. In Link's time, they were still dependent on books to provide information, and he wasn't sure whether they had even invented a printing press yet. But he never thought Link was dumb, just behind the times. Maybe Link was feeling a bit inadequate in the presence of all this intimidating technology and the sheer number of people around.

"Here," he said. "It's a pocket gopher."

"A gopher? Where do they live?"

"Near everywhere arid. They're small burrowing animals. They mostly live in holes in the ground and come to the surface to look for food or such. The range in which they live is far too vast to be searched."

"Still, it's unusual that a robot would be carrying this," Roll said.

"It is, but it doesn't bring us any closer to our goal of finding where Wily is or what he wants."

"Then we're back to square one?" Link asked.

"I'm afraid so." He shut off the microscope. The fluorescent light dimmed, leaving the room a little darker. "I guess we'll have to go back to our lives as usual until we get something else to go on. Given we have to wait, I'm not sure what else to do."

Roll immediately turned to Mega Man. "Wait, we know where Wily is - in the Antarctic. Why don't we just investigate there for him?"

"We can't make the assumption that he's there. We've only got circumstantial evidence to go on. We can't directly tie him to the tachyon field that went up or the robots along the landscape."

"What about the research base. All those humans. That was him."

"We don't know that for sure. ICPO is investigating the crime scene right now. If they turn up some connection to Wily, then we can go investigate, but until then, we have to wait."

"But he escaped from prison and attacked Dr. Light. That's a crime we can put him in for."

"True, but still, I think we should wait until we figure out Wily's true plans. Just because he sent robots to the Antarctic, doesn't mean he's in the Antarctic, necessarily. He could have easily left as soon as we found out where he was." He picked up the slide containing the hair from the lens of the microscope. "We can continue investigating this. Maybe a DNA sample will reveal something, but I doubt it. We already know what it is."

"Maybe Wily keeps a pet gopher," Link said.

"I highly doubt it. Wily would rather have a cold battle robot in his lap than a kitty."

"What about a gopher pelt?"

"No one wears gopher pelts. They would be expensive, not very warm, and very few people wear real fur these days."

"You said they're burrowing animals. Maybe it came from underground."

"It could have blown in the wind 1800 miles for all we know."

"So we really can't make any guesses about where it came from."

"Unfortunately, true. I think we've hit a wall."

The three of them stood staring at the image of the filaments on the monitor.

"Well," Roll stood up, frustrated but complacent. "There's plenty of housekeeping to do. Guess I'll go do that."

"You might want to turn down the guest room for Link."

"Right," she sighed.

 _Roll,_ Mega Man communicated to his sister, _don't get belligerent. You still have duties to perform when you're not out saving the world. Just cause you got an upgrade doesn't mean you're better than what you were now._

 _I'm not mad, I just feel like we should be doing something other than sitting on our butts. We could look for him._

 _It's not that small of a world yet, Roll. Scouring the entire world for him could take weeks. He's one man among billions. Sooner or later, he's going to rear his head. That's when we'll get him._

 _All right, just as long as you don't exclude me from joining you._

 _No problem,_ Mega Man smiled inwardly. _I know you didn't get all dressed up for nothing._

 _Thanks, Rock._ She left the room, leaving her brother and Link in the science lab.

"Roll will prepare a bed for you tonight," Mega Man told him.

"All right. Thanks for letting me stay here."

"Well, we certainly wouldn't put you in a hotel for the night," he smiled.

"So what's this DNA stuff?"

"DNA is a nucleic acid found in all living cells. Well, essentially, they're the building blocks of all life. They're 'blueprints'. They carry information on how to build life, all the characteristics that you have, like hair color, eye color, the structure of your nose, and so on. Here's a picture." He brought up a quick sample picture of a DNA molecule, strategically neglecting to tell him it was gleaned from a children's science textbook. It looked like a colorful corkscrew ladder.

"So this is what makes up all life?"

"It's the key to all life. It's what makes all the differentiations in life. But it's microscopic. You won't be able to see it with just the naked eye."

"Oh, I'll have to tell that to the royal wizard when I get back home."

"I doubt you could see it. Even if you've invented the microscope it won't be powerful enough to see DNA."

"Oh, I don't know. He probably has some sort of magnifying glass spell."

Mega Man decided to keep his mouth shut, and let Link continue his childlike wandering, jumping from question to question. It was the best way for him to learn.

"So," Link continued, "Could you use alchemy on the DNAs. I mean, could you mix and match it? Like could you put a duck bill on a cow?"

"Yes. That would be a weird use of genetics, but yes. Except that making genetic alterations by private citizens was ruled illegal in the Sydney convention some decades ago."

"Why?"

"It was considered immoral and contradictory to natural evolution. Basically people were scared they were messing in something they weren't supposed to be messing with. They thought we should let nature take its course and not force evolution. There were a few exceptions though. Like using genetics to be able to grow limbs back."

"I see. I wonder if that's how Ganondorf makes his monsters. Through some sort of genetic alchemy."

Mega Man sat back and regarded Link. "You know, I must say, you are remarkably receptive to all these new ideas that are being thrown at you."

"Well, you have to be in my line of work - professional adventurer," Link said with fake hubris. "It wouldn't do very well if I went into a town and then hated everyone for their different way of life or for doing things I don't agree with." He played with his belt, tightening and loosening it. "I think that's some of why Hyrule depends on me so much. I've got an open mind, willing to think of new ideas and possibilities. Those temples weren't designed with the common man in mind. Everyone else is kinda stuck in their ways."

"That's for sure," Mega Man said as he thought of the puzzle he barely got out of under the forest.

"Of course, I wasn't so willing to accept you at first. Heck, when you first came down, I thought you were human. I didn't understand what a robot was, no matter how many times you tried to explain it to me."

"Well, I mean, you're adapting better than I did. Remember that fight in the bar?"

"Well, that was just because you weren't used to the subtleties of Hyrule society, like don't mess with the card club."

"Or when I tried to cook that animal."

"Okay, that... no, there's no excuse for that," he laughed. "Although, I guess there is, if your food comes instantaneously from the wall from somewhere. You've probably forgotten how to cook."

"Roll got all the cooking skills, since she's the housekeeper. I'm the tool-user."

"So you do fixing and things?"

"And help Dr. Light in the laboratory."

"Could you ask Roll to cook something for me sometime? I'd like to see what meals from the wall are like."

"Sure. She'll be making breakfast for you tomorrow. I'll ask her to make something good."

"Thanks." Link looked up at the image of the gopher fur still on the monitor. "Say, you have a lot of equipment here, right?"

"Yes."

"Then maybe you can help me with something."

"Sure."

"Why is it," he pulled out his ice rod, "This won't work?"

"What is it?"

"It's an ice rod. It shoots a sub-zero blast of air to freeze things. I tried using it, but it's not working. Like all my other magic weapons."

"I told you. I don't think magic exists in this world."

Link laughed it off. "That's like saying air doesn't exist in the world. Magic is not something quantifiable. It's all around us. It's natural energy. It doesn't just go away. For extreme uses of magic, you need magic potion so you have more natural energy about you."

Mega Man decided not to tell him that air does not, in fact, exist in all worlds. "What you think of as magic is probably some element that exists in your world and not in ours that allows you to do things that seem supernatural. If I knew more about it scientifically, I could theorize better. How do you get it to work?"

"Well, you just point it at something and fire it using your mind. I'm not sure how to explain it. You just will it to do whatever it is it does. My lantern works the same way, it can produce a small flare if you put a little magic powder in it. It's not much good for anything but lighting torches."

Mega Man had initially shrugged off Link's claims of magic, and hadn't given much thought to how it would work, since he didn't have that capacity. But still, there was an opportunity here to learn something about the elements of a different world. A lot of scientists would like to get something like this under the scope. They didn't have many opportunities like this. Dr. Light would be disappointed if he didn't take advantage of it, as long as Link was here. "Well, I'll give it a try. Give it to me."

Link handed him the wand. Mega Man took an inspector's look at it. The scepter consisted of a thick, metal cylindrical rod, tabbed in blue at the heel, and tapering down to a thin bar, connecting the shaft to a pointed blue diamond at the tip. It seemed like a typical staff used by wizards in fantasy stories.

"I'll try putting it under the compositor, and use the material composition filter." Mega Man took the rod over to another machine in the room. This one had two large metal boxes, one hanging from the ceiling, the other implanted in the ground. Mega Man slipped the ice rod in the thin opening, placing it on the clear white lit surface. Then he brought up the console and typed some commands in. The box from the ceiling whirred loudly as it lowered closer to the wand. Finally he pushed a green button, and a bar of light swept slowly over the white surface the rod was lying on.

Link was hopeful this could provide some clues, maybe give him the key to activating his magic weapons in this world. Maybe magic was just done differently here. Maybe instead of willing it, you had to apply some sort of catalyst, or use a talisman, or something. Magic was one of the few advantages Link had over the robot. If he could get his weapons to work, he could fight along Mega Man's side. But until then, he was dead weight.

The display in front of the two started listing lines of text one after the other. Mega Man read them off. "The shaft is composed of iron... nickel... the crystal is... clear quartz... and indigo dye."

"What... what does that mean?"

"There's nothing in this rod that can't be found... well, anywhere." In fact, if Mega Man didn't know better, he'd say Link bought this in a cheap occult bookstore. "I could make something like this myself, given the materials."

"So you're saying..."

"There's nothing abnormal about it. Nothing 'magical'. It's just a scepter."

"No, no, that's not true. I've used this thing before. I know it works."

"I'm not saying it doesn't work. I'm just saying it doesn't work here. I can't find anything that would make it do what you say it would."

"Well, um, how about another scanner?"

"I can't think of any scanners that would yield more information."

"Well," Link scratched the back of his head. "Maybe when I went through the portal, some of the materials changed. Like it got transposed into the materials it would be made out of in this world."

"I didn't change when I went through," Mega Man said matter-of-factly. "And I'm composed of elements that don't exist in your world." He handed him back the rod.

Link looked at it forlornly. "Well, maybe I'm just not doing something right. I just need to concentrate. I need to find out what's different here. There's no lack of magic, I'll tell you that. It can't just go away."

Mega Man didn't want to get into an argument. "Well, it's of little consequence now. Your bed should be made up. I'll take you there."

Mega Man led Link through the house and stopped at the door to the guest bedroom. The door parted in two to let them in.

"Just finished," Roll said from her position of turning down the bed sheets.

Link's eyes widened at the sight of the luxurious accommodations. "This is nicer than the king's bedchamber," he exclaimed as he walked in, spreading his arms to feel the space. Mega Man thought the room was rather sparse as far as bedrooms were concerned. There was just a chest of drawers, nightstand, and bed, plus one door leading to the adjoining bathroom and one leading to the closet.

Link sat down on the bed. "Whoa, this feels like a cloud." He laid back on it, spreading his arms. He sighed in relaxation.

"I stocked the bathroom with some bedtime supplies you might need, like a toothbrush, hairbrush. And if you need anything, just tell the computer to open a comm line to Rock or myself."

"Mmmmm," Link said. "Okay."

"Okay," Mega Man said, "Good night."

"Night," he said lazily.

The doors closed, leaving Link in the dark, enjoying the comfort of the guest bed. He rubbed his hands above his head. Suddenly, he felt some strangely hard plastic object, disjointing him from his trance. He pulled himself up and looked at the device, but it was too dark to see.

"Turn on lights?" Link asked, not sure if that was the right command. Apparently, it was. The room lit up to daylight proportions. The little block was a white box attached to something under the bed with a plastic cord. Link tried tugging on it, but it didn't yield. He was afraid to rip it out, for fear of breaking something. There was a black side to it, though, under which were two small bumps with a plus and minus. As he felt the buttons, the black part lit with two numbers out of red lines. Link tried pushing the plus again, and the number increased by one. Pushing it several times kept increasing the number. Minus decreased the number. Since he had no idea what this did, he tried setting it back to what it was before, but he couldn't remember what that was. So he set it to the lowest number he could get - thirty-four. Link had never seen a bed that needed turning on before. He got up and looked around elsewhere.

He recognized the chest of drawers, but there were no handles on it. How was he supposed to open it. He touched one of the drawers and it popped open. It must have responded to sensation. Very interesting. What else was there?

He entered what looked like another door in the bedroom. It pulled apart, revealing an extremely white room with no furniture, and nothing soft. He cautiously entered, seeing a basin in the middle of a counter. Maybe this was the washroom. No sooner had he brought his hands to the faucet, than water started streaming down into the drain. He pulled his hand back and the water stopped. He put his hand in, water began. He pulled it out, water stopped. The sink knew when he wanted to use it, and when not to. That was extremely creepy. He didn't like the house knowing what he was doing.

Next to the sink were two brushes and a tube-like item. He picked up the tube and examined it. It was colored red and blue, and had some writing on it that made no sense, but there was a picture of a woman smiling toothily. The tube had a button near the end, though, so he experimentally pushed that. A small amount of some thick blue cream excreted out, with a fairly minty smell. He sniffed it closer and took a taste. It was a very strong minty gel, and it tasted pretty good and gave him fresh breath. Maybe it was a nightly tradition to eat this before bedtime. Link took a larger squeeze's worth in his mouth and set it down.

There was also a large brush and tiny brush. The large one was obviously meant for hair. The tiny one was meant for... tiny hair? A mustache brush? They had some strange bathroom habits in this place. Link decided not to use the tiny brush for what he thought it was meant for and picked up the hairbrush.

That gel was so good he took one more shot and then set it down. He threw his green cap on the bed and looked around a bit more as he brushed his hair. There was a very large basin in the other side of the room. It looked like a bathtub, but modernized, with a faucet like what would be found in a sink. At the dead end of the room was a stall enveloped in frosted glass. Link stepped in, after taking one more nip of gel, and examined the empty tiled space. There was nothing on the smooth, clean walls except for two dials on either side of a panel and a large spigot high up on the wall. Link looked at the dials and turned the right one. Icy cold water started streaming out of the large spigot. Link nearly broke the glass trying to escape the invigorating blast, bounding out of the stall, breathing heavily. It was like being under the ice rod.

Figuring he should leave it as it was, he rolled up his sleeve and put his hand into the stall, turning back the dial. The water dwindled to a drip and shut off.

It was a mystery to Link why there were three sinks of different sizes in the room. Wouldn't one big one be enough? Couldn't that accommodate all the needs. All you really needed was a bath, and maybe a basin filled with water. Maybe they had to do laundry in this room as well.

Anyway, Link exited the bathroom, deciding not to try anything else in the room, taking the blue cream with him, if he felt like a snack later. He pulled off his partially wet tunic and stripped down to his underwear. "No lights," he declared. The room's illumination dimmed to pitch black. Stretching his arms one last time with a large yawn, he slipped under the covers, finding them a bit chilly, but thick, and promptly went to sleep.

 **Next Chapter: The World of Tomorrow**


	43. The World of Tomorrow

Link stirred out of consciousness, having no idea what time it was or how long he'd been asleep. There were no windows in his room, so he thought it was still dark. Still half-asleep, he tugged on the covers to pull them back over his shoulders and return to dreamland.

It felt like someone short-sheeted the bed. He kept tugging on the sheets, but they wouldn't budge. Then he tried to turn his body upright, and found he couldn't do that either. Something was pressing him down, laying on his torso. His senses woke up with a start and he lifted himself up. There was something big and heavy laying on him. He tried to kick it off as he yelped "Lights!"

The room illuminated and Link saw a big red thing lift off his legs and fall over the bed. Link, still in his long underwear, dove out on the other side of the bed, falling on his butt.

He hastily stood up and crept over to the other side, keeping his head leaned out, and light on his feet, ready to jump straight up to heaven if needed.

A black nose poked out from around the bed, followed by a snout and then a whole head. It looked a dog in the face, but it had a red helmet like Mega Man's, including twitching ears. Its body was bulbous and its legs rotated on joints attached to metal rods. It looked like what Mega Man would resemble if he was a dog... and red.

It was wagging its tail though, and its large eyes looked expressively happy at Link. He held out his hand and Rush delicately sniffed it, as a normal dog would when meeting someone new. The dog recognized him as friendly and panted. Link tried petting him, but all he felt was the eerily distressing sensation of scratching metal. The dog seemed to like it though.

"Robot dogs," Link mused to himself, "Are humans the only natural things in this world?" He stood up. "Wonder if there's going to be a time when they won't be needed."

With no windows, and feeling well-rested, Link surmised that it was morning, and subsequently, time to get up. He put back on his clothes, equipping all his necessaries, as was his habit. The dog stood there, walked around a bit, following Link, acting remarkably like a normal dog did. It jumped on the bed, pawed at the sheets and then nuzzled down to rest. Link kept his eye on it the whole time, a little cautious since his surprise introduction to this animal, or robot.

Finished with dressing, he approached the door, it slid open. This alerted the dog, who stood up and panted happily.

"You... want to go out?" Link asked.

The dog barked quietly in response.

"Okay, boy, er, girl, er, whatever, come on." Link patted his leg as he would if he called to a normal dog. The robot canine jumped down and followed Link out of the room.

The Hylian, accompanied by the mutt, wandered down the halls. Dawn was breaking, he could see from the corridor windows. He wasn't really sure what he was looking for, besides maybe Mega Man or Roll, to find out what there was to do today. The excitement of being in this strange world was one he could barely keep in check. Just the fact he was walking with an artificial dog would be enough to keep Hyrule Castle in rapt attention. Just exploring all the nuances of this manor would be enough to keep his curiosity satisfied for the rest of his days, pending he didn't accidentally flood it with ice cold water.

Link heard some light scuffling nearby and headed towards the sound. There was a distinct crackling, sparking going on as he turned the corner. He found himself in the kitchen again, where there was a boy kneeling next to the counter, holding a small stick that was giving off sparks and wearing a blank metal mask.

"Who're you?" Link asked.

The boy, startled, looked up at him and took off his cover. Link realized it was Mega Man, only wearing casual clothes. His helmet was off, showing his tussled brown hair, and he was wearing a white t-shirt and black shorts, but his large blue eyes gave him away. It was a little disconcerting to see him like this. He was indistinguishable from a normal boy.

"Oh, I didn't recognize you without your armor," Link said. "You're rather busy for it being this early in the morning."

"The dishwasher needed some tweaking in the wiring. I've been making repairs all night. I don't sleep, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. So you've been fixing stuff up all night?"

"Sure, it's what I do. The house suffered some damage before I left. Most of it got cleaned up, but there are still a few adjustments and modifications that are needed. There always are in a house of this size."

"You don't ever stop working do you."

"Not unless there's no work to do."

Link imagined Mega Man working day in and day out, never getting sleep, never getting rest, never stopping. True that he didn't need to sleep, but did that mean he didn't need to relax either? Didn't he get to play? Read a book? Anything fun? He knew Mega Man said that robots were intelligent tools for getting a job done, but this was bordering a very fine line in Link's eyes. The robot was as human as anyone Link had ever seen. 'It's not slavery,' Mega Man had told him, but could he even see the forest for the trees?

Mega Man rocked back on his knees and stood up. The red dog came out from behind Link's legs. "Ah, I see you've met Rush," the robot said.

"Rush? Yeah, the little pupper nearly scared me half to death."

"Aww, Rush just wanted a friend, didn't you, Rushy." Mega Man dropped to one knee and played with the dog's head roughly, scratching him behind the ears. Rush loved it, lolling his tongue out from side to side as his owner of similar composition played with him. It was an interesting scene, two metal beings bonding.

"I'm beginning to see where you got your affection for Buzzy from," Link commented.

"Who's Buzzy?" Roll said as she came in from the other end of the kitchen, drying her hands with a towel.

"Oh, just a friend we made in Hyrule."

"Oh. Sorry I haven't had time to make you breakfast yet. I just got finished. I'll get started on it now."

"No rush," Link said.

The dog looked up at him and whined, thinking it had done something wrong.

"No, no, not you, I mean, no hurry."

Roll got started by bringing out pots and pans, while Link sat down with Mega Man. "So what's the point of having a robot dog?"

"Well, it's good for families that have allergies to pets, but still want one. But in my case, Rush is also a battle companion. Dr. Light put in some modifications to help with my mobility around Dr. Wily's fortresses. Watch." Mega Man stood up and back. "Jet, Rush."

Rush hunkered down, flattening out his back. His legs dropped to his sides and he scrunched up to make himself flat. His tail and hind-end shifted out of the way to make room for a engine turbine, which ignited, causing him to hover above the floor.

"That's pretty nifty."

"He's got a few other forms too. Dr. Light's been experimenting as well. He's made an adapter chip so Rush and I can combine to give me super-strength or flying ability. Oh, and he can roll over."

"Uh-huh." Link stood back up, looked around the room for a moment. "So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Well..." Mega Man scratched his head, thinking of something for Link to do.

"Hey, Rock," Roll said as she came out of the pantry holding two eggs. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" She gave him a knowing eye.

"Mm, yeah, good point. You could use some casual clothes. Those don't exactly fit today's standard."

Link held out his tunic, examining it. "What, my clothes?"

"Well, you're going to need something as long as you're here. You need to fit in, and what you're wearing now won't exactly be it."

Having the chance to think about it, Link did realize the clothes he was wearing, made of animal skins and textiles, probably wouldn't be what these people would be wearing. They probably had robot clothing that could move your arms for you.

"Might be a good idea."

"Did you take a shower last night?" Mega Man asked.

"No. Wait, was that what that stall was? The one with the rain spout?"

"Yes," Mega Man surmised.

"No way, I touched one of those dials, the water came out icy cold. I would have gotten hypothermia."

"The dials are there to control the temperature of the water, one is hot, one is cold. You have to adjust them both to get the temperature you want."

"Oh."

"Or you can use the bath. It works the same."

"Is that the big basin? That's what I thought it was, but I wasn't sure if it was for laundry too."

"Okay, why don't you go do that, and by then breakfast will be ready," Roll said. "Soap is on the tray next to the wall."

Link nodded affirmatively and left the room. Rush's metal paws clip-clopped after him.

"Good thinking," Rock said once he was out of earshot. "Nice tact on that."

"Yeah, he couldn't get within a mile of the mall before the humans would pass out."

"Yeah, good thing for him we're robots."

* * *

Roll couldn't help but think how much Link looked like a child as he glued his eyes to the window, with his fingers perched on the edge, watching the ground below him, spackled with microscopic hover-cars zooming in perpendicular lines beneath him.

The hover-cab climbed higher in the sky. Roll explained to Link that this was like the car they took to the train station, but the purpose of a taxicab was to convey passengers around the city for money. Link compared it to the king's private coach. Mega Man was taking their own car to the police and investigation center, known as the 'constabulary' to Link, to discuss the matters at the ice station and the whereabouts and intentions of the mysterious Dr. Wily. It was essentially a clue comparing session, and neither Roll nor Link needed to go to this. This presented a terrific opportunity for the Hylian to explore downtown and get some new modern clothes.

"So where're you heading to in the mall?" the cab driver, a Caucasian male, asked with a rather acerbic accent. "Going to see the concert?"

"No," Roll said, unaware and uncaring that there was a concert, "We're going shopping for clothes."

"Sears is having a fall sale. 40 percent off all marked brands."

"40 off? You mean the prices are nearly cut in half!" Link gasped.

"Correct," the cab driver said.

"Roll, we should go there," Link turned to her and pleaded.

"Don't worry. Every store has a sale now. They're trying to get rid of fall inventory."

"With the deals this good," the cab driver said, "You'd better hurry in, before it's all gone."

Link pointed to the cab driver, with surprise in his eyes and a muffled yelp that Roll wasn't taking advantage of deals like this. Roll just sat back and rolled her eyes.

"You're not from around here, are you?" the cab driver said.

"Nope."

"Where're you from?"

"Hyrule."

"You pullin' my chain, boy? Where're you from?"

"No, I'm from Hyrule."

"And where exactly is Hyrule?"

"Well, um..." Link wasn't sure how to describe where he came from in relation to this world. He could say he came through a mysterious vortex, but Link thought that would sound weird, even for this world.

Roll interrupted before the Hylian said something even more outlandish. "He's from out of town. Hyrule's a new military academy, probably not entered into your data table yet."

"Oh... well, enjoy your stay here. I recommend... getting new clothes for the town."

"Yeah, that's what we're trying to fix," Roll said. She had tastefully used Link's long hair to cover his pointed elf-like ears. It probably wouldn't have raised any eyebrows if they were seen in public, but just in case...

The cab driver continued, "If you're looking for accessories, Hikari's is the place to go. There's a variety of brand names, value-priced items, and cosmetics to fashion-aware teens."

"Waaaait," Link said, with trepidation in his voice. "Are you a subtle advertiser?"

"He's a cab-driver," Roll said. "All public servants are programmed to give spiels and blurbs. It's part of how the company affords them."

"Programmed? You mean...?"

Link peeked over the driver's chair. The cabbie, who was indistinguishable from a human, was nothing more than a torso with arms, impaled on a thick metal pole implanted in the car seat.

"He's a robot," Link asked Roll, no longer mindful of the cab driver.

"Of course. Cab driving is a dangerous profession. But no one holds up a robot, no one hurts or kidnaps a robot."

"I feel a little ill," Link said.

"There's a biohazard bag in the pocket in the back of the car seat if you need it," the cabbie thoughtfully said, apparently oblivious of their conversation.

Link tried to look at the buildings passing in the front windshield. "When Mega Man said robots were used for jobs too dangerous for humans I thought he meant construction and mining."

"They're used for that too. Here." She bent down to the floor of the cab and inserted a card below. A panel opened up, displaying a selection of colorful rectangles. Still gripping the card, she pressed one of the pink ones. A section next to the card slid away, revealing a pink and white canister.

"Thank you for your purchase," the robot driver said.

She pulled a small tab-like lever on the top of the canister and gave it to Link. "Here, drink this."

Link, wanting to quell his aching stomach, not only from the revelation but the flying, took a great big gulp of the liquid without hesitation. It was sweet and bubbly, with a hint of mint and lime. After two more great swallows he tipped his head back up and smacked his sugary lips.

"Mmm, not bad."

He rotated the can in his hand, examining the pretty labeling on it. There was some tiny fine print on one side. He took another sip as he rotated it the other way. In vertical letters were the words 'Fairy Juice'.

"Pbbbttbt!" was the sound Link made as he sprayed out the pink potion all over the driver's dashboard.

"Hey!" he uttered.

Link turned to Roll. "What are you, some kind of sick cannibal?"

"What? What's wrong?"

"You expect me to drink this?" he practically shoved the can in her face, wiping his mouth and tongue with his other hand. "You're disgusting. I can't believe you make a drink out of fairies. Argh, their healing powers aren't enough for you?" He imagined fairies being put in a Cuisinart, innocently flying around, until someone started turning the crank.

Roll said, "Oh, this is not a drink made out of fairies."

Link paused. "It's not?"

"No. That's just the name. Fairies are mythical. It's just what they call the drink, to appeal to a younger generation. Essentially, it's just flavored water."

"Really?" Link took another look at the can. It clearly read fairy juice on the label. "Then these aren't the spells used to extract the fairy's magicks?"

"Sodium benzoate? No, those are the ingredients. It's mostly water, sugar, flavoring, and coloring."

"You sure?" Link asked. He didn't want to be taking part in necromancy.

Roll nodded.

Link took another cautious sip. It tasted pretty good, not like fairy innards. "Sorry about that," he said to the driver.

"No problem," he said, rolling his eyes, using a free hand to wipe off his windshield. The cab dipped down off the flying freeway and descended close to a large flat crystal building. They slid along the ground, pulling up to one side where there was a large concrete arena where people were milling about.

Roll and Link slid out of the vehicle. Roll handed him her cash-card, which he took inserted into a slot and then withdrew. "Thank you for choosing Kaufman Cabs. Have a pleasant day at the South Point mall and remember their upcoming 'deal days'." He rolled the window back up and flew off.

"Why is everyone trying to sell me something?" Link mused.

"That's just the way it is here. Advertising pays for a significant portion of commercial products. I just got a message from Rock."

Link took a few seconds to process this non sequitir. "Wha... what?"

"Rock, Mega Man sent me a message from downtown. We can communicate with each other wirelessly."

"Is 'wirelessly' like telepathy. I'm familiar with that."

"It is similar to that. He said he's still in the meetings, but he's finishing up. They didn't find a trace of Wily at the ice station. But they're not unconvinced it was Wily."

"What in the world does that mean?"

"It means they still think Wily did it, even though they have no evidence directly linking them. There was nothing conclusive on the gopher fur DNA either. Except there were some dirt particles recovered that match soil in the New Mexico - Arizona region. That's in a arid/desert zone."

"So basically, we don't really know anything more than we did before."

"Yes, it looks like that."

"Damn, why don't we just make our own investigation? All you guys do is have meetings and research. Why don't we just use some action?"

"You're right. In this world, you have to do a lot of paper-signing before you are allowed to do anything, otherwise courts could easily rule that what you did was a violation of a right guaranteed in the constitution, and everything you did would be for nothing. It wasn't always like this, but over years and years, so many exceptions had to be allowed for different circumstances that you need to ask a lot of permissions, and that takes time."

"I'm going to make sure Hyrule never gets that way."

"Nonetheless, we have to wait, and while we wait, we need to get you some clothes. Come on." Roll took him up to a black block in the middle of the concrete. There was a large screen in the middle of a pillar sticking out of the pavement. Roll touched some points on the screen. "I'm just looking up where the best deals are according to what you need. I need to consult the fashion catalog for young men. See what will fit you. It'll just take a few minutes."

Link nodded and turned away, looking out at the crowd. He could tell what he was supposed to wear just from looking at the passers-by. Weird stuff. Some were wearing rings around their head, some with patterned t-shirts, cuffed pants with strange pointy things coming out of the knee. And that was just the men. The women's clothes couldn't even be described, but there was definitely a lot of variety. All women in his era wore dresses of neutral colors - brown, green, earth tones. Most couldn't afford the expensive bright dyes that were better suited to upper class citizens. And for all castes, the clothes covered them head to toe. He couldn't believe these women weren't shivering to death. It was nearly embarrassing to look at, but somehow he couldn't turn his eyes away. To prevent from being accused of staring, he tried looking around in the distance

A small, round robot with a wide, disc-like bottom was rolling down the sidewalk's edge a little way's down. Link could see it had some sort of spinning brush on its underside and it was cleaning the gutters of litter. Its appearance was thankfully humanless, more like a rounded camera with a lens poking out and two tiny claw-like arms.

One of the citizens crossing the walk got too close to the robot's brush and stepped on it. The centrifugal force sent the robot spinning forward, rotating around into the man's knees. It stopped itself before it rammed them, but the man kept walking and banged his foot into it.

"Hey, watch it," the man yelped. With an angry grimace he flipped his foot up and kicked the little guy over. He passed on by the now helpless robot, lying in the corner of the gutter, flailing its little arms and running its treads.

Link immediately ran over to the street-cleaning bot, now as feeble as a turtle. "I gotcha," he said. He darted his hands in and out, trying to time it so the flailing claws wouldn't hurt him. Its lens eye rotated back and forth, whirring mechanically. Link managed to grab it and set the bot down in front of him gently. "There you go."

Its panic stopped. Its arms remained still and its head stopped moving back and forth in denial of its situation. Once it settled, it continued moving along, seemingly ignorant of what just happened, its brush whirring and cleaning up debris.

"You're welcome," Link said with a little sarcasm.

 **Next Chapter: Got Item**


	44. Got Item

"So I'm wandering all around this maze, no idea where I'm going. The only thing I have to guide myself by is the occasionally breaks in the canopy. I might as well have my eyes closed. And, all of a sudden, I feel something following me. But I can't really see it since it's so dark. It just feels like there's something following me. So finally I find the way out, and my eyes are burning from the sunlight. And then I turn around, and there's this monkey behind me," Link declared, moving his arms in fantastic fashion to illustrate his story.

Link was sitting on top of the table, with Roll adjusting the new beaded choker on his neck. She was attentively listening to Link's story while in the middle of one of the laboratories in the basement. They had just finished dressing him in his new apparel, which consisted of a light blue shirt hanging loosely off his torso, emblazoned with the symbol of the manufacturer, which Roll said didn't show a false allegiance to a different king, and some tan canvas pants. His trusty holding bag was still around his waist though.

Link continued. "So, obviously, I was a little surprised. It's not every day monkeys follow me around. But then this guy says," he raised his voice to a higher pitch, "'I'm KiKi the monkey! I love rupees more than anything! Can you spare me ten rupees?'"

"It spoke?"

"Yeah, I was surprised too. But, later, I figured it was some guy who got lost in the Dark World and became transformed. Although he sure must have adapted pretty well. He sure convinced me he was a monkey. There were a lot of stranger things in the Dark World. But anyway, so there's this panhandling monkey in front of me, asking me for ten rupees."

"What would it do with rupees?"

"I have no idea, but I figure, I had about 300 on me, and didn't know if I'd ever find a shop again or need money, so I gave him the ten rupees. And then he says, and all the time he's making this weird high-pitched squeak, 'Good choice! Now I will follow you around for awhile.' So now I got this monkey following me everywhere."

Roll finished adjusting the choker's size and pulled out the chair to sit down and listen to the rest of the story. Link was trying his best to get Roll laughing. Maybe the story just wasn't funny enough, maybe humor was different here. Still, it wasn't really meant to be laugh-out-loud funny, just a humorous anecdote while they were waiting for Mega Man to come back. And she was smiling.

"And he's following me everywhere. I'm trying to take down some Armos Knights bouncing around, trying to spear me, and he's just standing there, smiling." Link did the imitation of a complacent KiKi, sitting and waiting. "And I'm chucking my boomerang over and over as hard as I can." He motioned throwing a boomerang over and over. "And I'm like 'hello, is this all the help I get for ten rupees?' And he's just smiling there."

Roll nodded, encouraging him to go on. Link said, "So, I get up to the palace, and the door's completely shut. No doorknob, no keyhole. Nothing I can find. So the monkey, who's been standing there, hasn't said a word while I've been fending off practically an army, and he says 'If you pay me a hundred rupees, I'll open the door for you.' Now, ten rupees wasn't a big deal, but a hundred, I wasn't sure I could part with so easily. But I thought about it, figured I didn't really have a choice, and he climbs up to the roof and presses on the switch that opens the door." Link shrugged. "If I didn't find that monkey, or he didn't find me, rather, I wouldn't have been able to get into the temple. So... who knows."

"What happened to the monkey?"

"I have no idea. Maybe he opened up a shop with all the money I gave him. Kiki's Temple-Opening Emporium."

The doors opened then, and Mega Man entered, still wearing civilian clothing, holding a few green circuit chips and a rolled up scroll under his arm.

"What are those for?" Roll asked, squinching an eyebrow curiously.

"New upgrade. Dr. Light designed it from the hospital. I just put together the hardware."

"Dr. Light is letting you upgrade me? I dunno..." she said in mock sarcasm. "I don't know if I like having my brother messing around with my circuits. What if you give me the A.I. of a goat?"

"Oh, Roll, you know I'd do something much worse if I was gonna mess around. Besides the upgrade's not for you. Well, sort of."

"It's not? Then who's it for? Link?"

Link looked up with scared eyes, not willing to get torn apart and have metal put inside him.

"It's for Tango."

Suddenly, the door shot open and a green cat barreled into the room, being chased by Rush, barking all the while. Link tucked his feet up. The animals started circling Roll's chair, nearly making her fall over.

"Rush!" Mega Man called out. "Bad! Stop chasing her! Bad dog!"

Rush skidded to a stop at Roll's feet. The cat jumped onto the table next to Link, and started casually walking around like it owned the place and it hadn't just been frantically chased. Link looked at it closer. He noticed, as it started to lick its paw, it was a robot cat. It even had the same model helmet as Rush and Mega Man, and striped hindquarters and a tail.

"Is there anything here that's not a robot?" Link asked. "Do you even have robotic goldfish?"

"Sure. But those look more lifelike. Come here, Tango." Mega Man patted his hand and snapped his fingers. Tango ignored him.

"It doesn't work," Link commented.

"No, just Dr. Light was too good designing cat A.I. Tango, come here," he said more forcefully.

Tango, the cat, sauntered to the edge of the table where Mega Man was waiting for her and gazed straight ahead, seemingly bored. Mega Man, while waiting for Tango to decide if she was too good for listening to his commands, handed the scroll to Link. "And this is for you."

"What is it?" He took the thick scroll that felt like flat rubber.

"It's a bio on Dr. Wily. You were saying how it's important to know your enemy."

"Oh, yeah, thanks." Link opened up the thick paper as Rush pawed the ground and laid at Link's feet. The text on it was like a screen, finer than any ink he'd encountered. It was crisp and clear. He started reading. "Dr. Albert W. Wily was born in twenty-blah-dee-blah..." He mumbled off as he tried to read fast, memorizing the words by moving his lips. He wanted to get back in the action as soon as possible, not spend time reading.

"Okay, Tango. Open up," Mega Man commanded. "Come on, open up. Lie down. Do something I say. Please?"

Tango, after a few seconds of thinking about it, laid down on her stomach and flipped open a panel covering her back.

"Good kitty."

"So this is going to make Tango for me, like Rush is for you?" Roll said with delighted excitement.

"Yep, I think so. All we need to do is install this transformation chip and a few others. And this one needs to go inside you as well," he said, holding up various chips and boards. "It's a simple procedure. We're keeping her buzzsaw functions, just adding on new mobility feature. Dr. Light told me to keep it a surprise for you."

"Hmmph," Roll smirked.

"But he said you'd like it. It'll come in handy." Mega Man peered down inside Tango's dark body cavity and poked around, looking for an empty expansion slot, holding up an adjustment tool.

Meanwhile, Link perused the scroll. The biography was long and arduously written. If Wily had an ordinary past, there wouldn't have been nearly as much information. It went on and on about his childhood, the schools he grew up in, the education he received. None of that mattered. It was all robot schools that Link had no reference for. He'd never given extensive interviews, only a few scant blurbs for robotics magazines here and there, so the information was sketchy, and some things contradicted others. It looked like Wily had not been thinking straight for a while.

Then the page ended in the middle of a sentence. Link looked on the back, but there was nothing but textured squares, criss-crossed with green lines.

"Uh, Mega Man, where's the next scroll?"

"What next scroll?"

"Well, this thing just ended in the middle of the sentence."

"Touch that arrow on the bottom," he said with his fingers twiddling around deep in Tango's body.

Link saw a small arrowhead pointing to the bottom of the scroll below the text. He pressed it with his thumb and the words suddenly started moving off the page. Link yelped in fright and threw the scroll in the air.

Roll and Mega Man looked up from their work. "What's wrong?"

"The words are moving. I thought you had no magic in this world."

"It's just a roll-up screen. You load some data on it and you can take it anywhere. People use it for reading the news on the bus, for example. You use the arrows to scroll through the text," Mega Man said as he picked up the sheet and handed it back to Link, who took it cautiously. He trained his eyes back on the words and kept reading.

Mega Man returned to Tango and switched tools, putting in an electric screwdriver. "Okay, that should be it for Tango." He closed the back panel. The robo-cat opened its eyes and stood up again. It jumped off the table and went to play with Rush at Link's feet.

"Okay, all we need is to put this in," he said as he held up a board. "It's your connection interface to Tango."

 _Hey, Rock,_ Roll said as she offered up her arm and Rock opened a panel. _Did you talk to Dr. Light at all about the transporter?_

 _Not really. He said he won't be able to do anything about it until he gets back and has a chance to look at the damage._

 _What if he can't fix it? What if Link has to stay in this world forever?_

Rock stopped for a moment and took a look at Link. He had stopped reading the bio, taking a moment to play with Rush and Tango on the floor, dangling a piece of string in front of the cat. If they couldn't get Link back to Hyrule, life would go on for him. He had shown he was easily adaptable to most of the culture changes. After some adjusting, he could live in this world.

But Hyrule couldn't. He'd shown that he was Hyrule's champion. Hyrule wouldn't survive without Link there to defend it. Apparently, the threat of evil was always there, and Link was the only one qualified to stop it. He was to Hyrule what Mega Man was to this world. The oafish king, the disjointed villas, separated by monsters. Link was the key to Hyrule's progress.

 _Link will survive, but the place he came from..._ He shook his head. _I don't know. We have to get him back somehow. I've been to his world, and he's their only hope to keep it from the threat of tyranny and genocide. I certainly couldn't do what he does._

 _Well, then we've got to think of a way to get him back._

 _That's up to Dr. Light, if he can fix the machine._

 _What if he can't fix the machine?_

 _...He has to fix the machine. Link will get back, one way or the other. There's got to be a way. We can't lose hope._

"Almost done?" Link asked, coming up to the two. Mega Man still had Roll's arm open and had finished inserting the chip.

"Almost."

"This Dr. Wily guy," he held up the scroll. "Sounds like a lot of madmen. Accurate view of the problem, insane view of the solution. You really can't defeat this guy?"

"What?" Mega Man said, feeling a little accused.

"I mean, Ganondorf has sorcery that I don't fully understand, but as far as I know, sorcery has no limits. But this guy. He's just a human. No special powers. You know his motives, you know where he is, you have all this technology, and you still haven't got him?"

"There are certain rules this culture has that yours doesn't. We can't just kill anyone who is attacking us. All humans have certain unalienable rights that can't be violated, no matter what they do. There have been times when I caught him, but his activities and rights are beyond my control."

Link picked up the scroll and found his place. "According to this thing, the first time he tried to take over the world, he escaped, then he was captured, then you thought he was killed and left for dead."

"I had no evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure whether that was set up or an accident, but I saw him crushed under debris from the castle."

"And you didn't check for a body?"

"I was incapacitated as well from falling rubble. I was taken out of the fortress to avoid its total collapse before I could verify anything."

Link skeptically went back to reading. "The next time he had someone else do his dirty work, and he escaped when he self-destructed his fortress, then he did the exact same thing. The exact same thing," Link repeated with emphasis, "Then this last time you caught him and he escaped from prison." He put the scroll down. "If you expect to defeat this guy you can't pull any punches."

"I have to pull punches. It's not only the law. It's also in my programming. I cannot harm Wily. The best I can do is capture him and bring him to justice. And quite frankly, that's all I want to do. He deserves to be punished for his crimes, not to die."

"Then maybe you need to get reprogrammed. What about all the people that this guy's hurt? And going to keep on hurting until he's gone. Isn't there some law against that. Isn't there a law that says the good of the many outweighs the 'rights' of one," Link said agitatedly.

"No. There is no law like that. There might have been debate about it in the past, and it might be instigated in the future. But for right now, in this time, there are only the three laws and I abide by them. If I don't, that makes me no better than Wily's bots."

"What's this 'no better' stuff? Wily harms a hundred humans, you harm one. That really makes you no better than him? What about those people in the research base. You didn't kill them. He did. That really makes you no better?"

"The law is the law. Justice will be served through the law. There is no other way it can be served. Plus, I would be terminated if I violated the law."

"Mega Man... Rock... You can't end up living your life like mine. At least I'm spared the turmoil of living my experiences over and over again."

"Your life?" Roll questioned.

Link sighed and looked up at the ceiling, preparing for a lengthy explanation. "My destiny is to fight evil. Across generations, fight evil. Every time evil is at work, a hero named Link is destined to appear and protect the land. And the reason I have to do this, is because of some screw-up the gods or whoever made the first time with sealing the evil. There was a break in time, something that allowed the evil to exist beyond the normal mortal limits. And so to fix this, the gods made it so that Princess Zelda and I would arise and fight the evil. So I'm forced to fight even after I'm dead. But at least it's not really me always fighting." He pointed squarely at Mega Man. "You have a choice."

"I do not have a choice. I'm bound by the laws."

"Hmph," Link muttered. "Fine. It's your world, not mine. You can do things your way if you want."

Roll was doing her hardest to resist blurting out the truth. She wanted to see Wily stopped as badly as Link did. But revealing that Rock was a rogue robot, without the three laws, would have been a disastrous watershed incident. The greater good was served by keeping her mouth shut.

Mega Man, visibly unperturbed, shut Roll's arm panel. "Feel okay?"

Roll could find no problems or conflicts with the new hardware. "Feels good."

"Try it out."

Roll turned to face Tango who was pawing at Rush's stubby tail wagging back and forth. "Tango! Bounce!"

With a quick meow, the cat tucked into a ball, bristling up its back to reveal sharp edged shingles. It bounced around the room, banging against the walls, floor, and ceiling, seeking out potential enemies. It skidded to a stop in a corner and unfurled back to a full-length. As if nothing happened, it looked cutely at Roll.

"Whoa, it didn't do that with the piece of string," Link said.

"Well, that still works," Roll said. "Now the new stuff. Tango, board."

Tango meowed and sat on its stomach. Its paws tucked into itself and spun into wheels. The backs of its haunches slid away to reveal two small rockets. "All right," Roll said, pumping her fist in the air. She gleefully stepped onto Tango's flattened back and sped off around the room in a circle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa," she yelped as she ran around in a tight circle. Tango stopped short, nearly throwing her off. She dizzily stepped off Tango's back, who reformed to a normal cat-bot. "Pretty fun," Roll said, wobbling about.

Rush, aroused by all the excitement, stood up and barked at Tango. Tango meowed and hissed defiantly back at the dog and casually licked her paw. Rush barked again and charged. Tango, at the last minute, bounded up onto the chair while Rush crashed headlong into the floor.

"Oh, Rush," Mega Man chided. "You have to get her where she's going. You gotta think ahead."

Roll grinned, "Hey, don't tell your dog how to beat up my cat. He can beat himself up on his own."

"Wait," Link said with brightened eyes, "We've been going about this all wrong. We've been trying to track Wily where he's been. Not where he's going."

"What do you mean?" Mega Man asked.

"We've been trying to follow Wily's path of destruction, but can't we predict where he's going to be?" He pointed directly at Mega Man. "Wily's going to put a brain in a robot. So what does he need to do that?"

"Well, he needs-"

"He needs special equipment, doesn't he? Stuff that you can't find just anywhere."

"Dr. Selkirk did outline some of the equipment and technology necessary for the transference," Roll said, "Not all of it was invented at his time."

"Is it invented now?"

"Yes, it must be."

Link said, "Well, Wily knows we're breathing down his neck so he's not going to make it all himself. He's going to take it."

"And," Mega Man said, starting to follow Link's line of logic, "Some of what he needs is already being used elsewhere, in factories and research institutes."

"Well, think of something he would need," Link prodded. "Something rare."

"He would need a transferring conduit." He touched his hand to his chin and thought, "For this purpose, that would be in the form of a supermagnetic conducting coil."

"There are only five of those in the world," Roll said.

"Which one would be the easiest to get?" Link asked.

"There is one in New Mexico. At the Auxiliary Quantum Coupling Plant."

"Which is near an underground mining facility," Roll added.

"And what is else is underground in New Mexico?" Mega Man smiled.

"Gophers!" Link said.

 **Next Chapter: Finally, Some Action**


	45. Finally, Some Action

Three streams of light plopped down on the ground from the sky, one blue, one purple, one light green and brown. The columns hit the ground, flattened out a bit like a Jell-O mold, then sprang up and reconstituted themselves into their respective forms - Mega Man, Roll, and Link. The two robots looked up at the great rust-brown factory with looming cargo door towering over them. "We're here," he said, thinking to himself why robots had such a predilection towards attacking factories and power plants.

The one biological entity staggered over to the wall and leaned up against it, putting his cold sweating head on his forearm.

He gulped loudly. "It's all right," Link said as he saw them make motions toward him out of the corner of his eyes. All the time he kept repeating in his mind, 'I'm not gonna throw up, I'm not gonna throw up'.

"You sure?" Mega Man said.

"Yeah. Just give me a minute."

"We don't have a minute."

"Well, then go on without me. I'll be all right," he said, breathing heavily.

Mega Man was concerned, not wanting to leave him here abandoned in the line of danger.

"I'll stay with him," Roll said.

Mega Man was surprised at this move. Since all Roll had practically talked about was seeing some action, it was strange to see her volunteer to stay behind and play babysitter. But he nodded and headed into the factory.

Roll turned back to Link who was now pacing back and forth, trying to walk off his nausea. "Sorry about this," he said.

"Not a problem."

"You can go on ahead. Guess you don't want to stay here taking care of a sick human." Link knew she wanted to see some action just the same as he did. He was trying to fight off the teleportation sickness as fast as possible so he could join back in. He took a sip of water from his canteen to wash down the bile rising in his throat.

"No. I've got as big a duty to protect humans as Rock does."

Link smirked at him. "Thanks." He took a deep breath, expanding out his chest. "I think I'm all right now." He cocked his head back and forth. "Ready?"

She pulled her laser pistol out of the holster at her side. "Let's go."

They barreled into the plant with fierce determination, passing by construction robots with bulky gray bodies and empty eyes walking back and forth. Conveyer belts and pistons fell into the background as they focused on their goal. Roll was the one leading the trek, but they were running side-by-side, trying to catch up to Mega Man. They saw him minutes later at the large doorway into the room which held the conducting coil. An oblong robot with tiny claw arms and red eyes was floating in front of the door.

"What's wrong?" Link asked. "Do we need a Big Key?"

Mega Man said, "I can't be let in because I don't have the proper authority. The only robots that can enter the room are the ones who are in there now doing maintenance and human workers."

"Well, what do I look like to you? Chopped liver?" Link stood in front of Mega Man and pointed to the security robot. "Listen buddy. I'm the chieftain district supervisor for this plant. There is an emergency malfunction with the continuum transfunctioner and we need to get in there now. It's a code 1-A emergency."

"The conducting coil requires a class three authorization-"

"Screw your authorization, son. Lives are at stake. Do you want to be in violation of the first law? Do you? You will if you don't let us in there."

"Contacting appropriate officials-"

Link threw up his hands. "We don't have time for that, dammit! What is your major malfunction? Don't you understand law one overrides your primary objective? Let me in now, or Janie will never live to see another day. Do you want that on your conscience? Do ya? If we don't all get blown out of the sky first, I'll see to it you're retired."

"Command understood. Door locks releasing."

"Thank you. About time we got some service here."

Mega Man and Roll stared at Link. "Where in the world did you learn to talk like that?"

"It was on one of those ghost world plays. Never did find out what happened to Janie. Hope she made it out all right."

Mega Man and Roll inwardly rolled their eyes as the security bot turned and operated the control panel. The door opened its maw and the security bot floated down the gray dingy corridor. They stopped short of another door which opened automatically for them at the whim of their guardian. They quickly sped out into a vast cylindrical tower stretching as high as the top of the plant. Tiers of walkways encircle the various floors this tower intersected with. Trailing wires flashing with electricity dangled back and forth in the breeze over the massive gaping pit.

"It's gone!" Mega Man declared. "It couldn't have just vanished. That thing was huge."

"Authorities being contacted," the security bot monotoned and reversed his direction.

Mega Man and Roll split up and ran down the semi-circle runway overhanging the pit. "It couldn't have just vanished."

"Did it teleport out?" Link asked.

"No. The machinery inside the coil is too unstable to be teleported. It would have to be carried out by someone."

"Are robots capable of carrying out things as big as this?" Link asked.

"Not even Guts Man could do it. And even if one could, it would be too unwieldy to take more than a hundred yards. And even so, no one would be able to transport such a large piece of technology without being seen."

"No human, you mean," Roll said.

Mega Man shook his head. "Well, it may have been a robot. But how would they have taken it out of here? The machine was lowered in from the top. And they couldn't have taken it out the door. Where else would they have gone?"

"Down." Link leaned over the railing and pointed downward into the inky blackness. Mega Man glanced up from the hanging wires and down into the ground.

"Yes, look!" Roll pointed. "Use your spectro. See the scratch marks on the walls?"

"Yes. I see it. They're fresh. Come on, we've got to follow them." He ran forward and jumped down into the pit. Link's eyes widened as he watched him drop like a rock into a well.

"Link," Roll said with authority. "Take that ladder," she pointed out.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"Yes. We have energy absorbing material on the bottom of our boots. It cancels out impact from falls." She followed suit, sprinting forward and long jumping into the chasm.

"Yeah, ladder's a good idea," he spoke aloud, thinking his boots weren't so advanced. He was daring, but not suicidal. Link ran to the other side and grabbed the two side-rails of the ladder and slid. He kept his hands near the sides of the rail in case he needed to stop short. The darkness of the pit gave way to bright light flooding through a cavern at the bottom. He slowed his descent by gripping onto the bars, making sure not to yank his arms out of his sockets.

Hopping the final step, he landed with his boots in the dirt as his robot friends were sniffing around the well-lit cavern they now found themselves in. Bright halogen lamps dotted the access strip.

"This is a big cave," Link said. "Looks like it was meant for people."

"It was. This is a mining shaft."

"The mining facility that's right next door," Roll added.

"The culprit must have made a tunnel close by so he could escape undetected," Mega Man said.

"Not escape, just commit the crime. He's got to be high-tailing out of here now. We've just got to figure out which way he went," Roll said.

Mega Man pointed to the intersection of the tunnel as a demonstration. The cavern was dug out as an offshoot of a mining tunnel. A set of railcar tracks marked its path.

"He had to have gone that way," Link pointed to the right.

"What makes you say that?"

"Look at the pattern of the tracks. They have those raised arrows on them. The rail car can't go backwards because it would catch on the arrows."

"He's right," Mega Man said. "In the old days, rail cars were designed like that to prevent them from reversing direction and crushing someone. Let's roll."

"What?" Roll said.

"I mean, let's go."

Roll, Mega Man, and Link ran up the tracks, passing the spheres of light on the wall to give light. The tunnel started rolling around a bend, revealing a net of security lasers blocking their path. They were shooting out of boxes attached to the wall, probably placed by the culprit to keep trackers from advancing.

"Wait! Hold up!" Mega Man commanded when Link kept going. "Those lasers are dangerous."

"Aw, screw your lasers." Link sprinted off and before Mega Man could stop him he leapt over the grid, passing right through a gap in the net.

Mega Man and Roll, visibly impressed with Link's agility, stopped short of the net, no holes big enough for them to dive or slide through. Mega Man took out his arm cannon and Roll her twin pistols and started shooting the laser producing hubs out from the wall.

"Go ahead, we'll catch up," Roll said.

Link did not need to be told that, as he was already bounding off. It took only a second for Roll and Mega Man to clear the path, with both of them working together. The Hylian was leading the pack now. He pumped his arms and legs back and forth, racing down the corridor. Link was sorely missing his pegasus boots right now.

Another bend appeared, this time to the left, and two unusual spheres hung from the ceiling, looking like burnt out light bulbs. Link paid them no mind at first, then they detached from their perch and flipped upward, spreading out bat wings and heading flying towards him. The Hylian was not sure how they could stay aloft with such a rotund figure, but he skidded to a stop and pulled out his bow and arrow. With lightning speed he nocked and shot a missile that swiftly flew through the air and clanged harmlessly on the metal exterior.

Two plasma blasts rang out behind him, striking one of the bats and disintegrating it.

"I've got the batton-tons," Mega Man said from behind. "Keep going."

Link nodded and rushed under the second enemy as Mega Man blasted it from the sky. A distinct rumbling could be heard ahead of him. Too focused on running, Link hadn't realized it was present until now. The gritty repetition sounded like a rail car beating against the tracks.

After the next turn in the tunnel, he saw the peak end of a metal spiraling pillar, placed horizontally, sailing down the tunnel.

"I see it!" Link yelled to the two robots behind him. It looked like the pillar was just traveling by itself on a rail-car down the tracks. The sight of their goal renewed their vigor and they ran even harder, now catching up to the slow moving bulky machinery.

A bright flash of light erupted from near the pillar and passed by. Link ducked it and it sailed between the two robot siblings, exploding against the wall.

"What was that?" Link declared.

"The machine! It's not traveling by itself!" Roll said.

"It's that robot from the museum. I can't blast it, I might hit the coil!"

A large plasma blast soared upward to the ceiling above Link and hit the stalactites above. A tremulous rumbling followed. Link knew what was coming and dived out of the way, just as the boulders started coming down. Getting to his feet, he scampered off as the ceiling tumbled down behind him. Just barely out of the crush zone, he waved away the dust and looked for Mega Man and Roll.

"Guys? Where are you?"

From behind the cave-in, Mega Man yelled out. "We're all right. We're back here," he called out after checking with Roll, who was getting up and brushing the dust off. "You all right?"

"Barely!" Link yelled from the other side of the rocks, barely able to hear the robot's muzzled voice.

"We have to dig our way out!" Roll yelled. "Go on without us! We'll catch up!"

"Got it!" Link furrowed his brows and sprinted down the tunnel, ready to catch up to the slow moving device. The robots would be fine, but it was more important that someone stopped that conduit coil before it fell into Wily's hands. In no time, he saw the end of the machine dipping low into a bump. It looked like it was driving itself, but Link knew there was some invisible being pushing the long rail-car.

"Stop!" he yelled.

Two more plasma blasts erupted from the machine. Link was far enough away to dodge them and did so easily.

"All right, coward. Let's see what you're made out of." Link took out his bow and arrow and fired two shots as he ran. Both arrows hit their target, the point of origin for the blasts, and fell to the ground harmlessly.

"Ack," Link swore. "How about some heavy artillery?" He plucked a blue bomb out of his bag and threw it ahead as far as he could. It hit the edge of the rail-car, which the invisible foe ran away from. The machine avoided the blast, but the shrapnel must have done something to the robot, as he could see a black shimmer running through his body, revealing his outline. The cloak was flickering in and out, giving an idea of where the robot was.

Link was getting desperate for useful weapons. "One of these has to work," he yelped and pulled out the next thing on top of his bag, his boomerang. He chucked it forward with full force. It sailed through the air, spinning and spinning, slowly descending. It missed his intended target and flew under the rail-car.

Suddenly, a screeching sound filled the air and yellow sparks flew from the wheel. Link's boomerang must have jammed up in the wheel or hit the brake or something. The enemy ran its stomach into the bottom of the car and fell back into the ground.

"Yes!" Link said. "Finally."

The Hylian ran up to the machine and pulled out his sword, pointing it at the fallen humanoid, whose shape was flickering in and out like a light.

"Reveal yourself," the Hylian demanded.

The robot remained motionless on the ground. Link could see he was sitting up, leaning back on his hands. Perhaps he was trying to recover from disorientation.

"I said reveal yourself," Link demanded more forcefully.

What looked like a shimmering waterfall washed over the robot, as if he was turning to liquid. The form solidified, changing color to blue, revealing...

"Mega Man?"

The form of Mega Man looked up at him, an evil scowl in his eyes. With a swift motion of his leg, he kicked Link in the stomach, sending him flying back into the rock and his sword clattering to the floor. The blue robot spun around and pushed the trolley forward, pumping his legs like pistons, getting the car moving even faster than before.

When Link recovered from his blow, he looked around, seeing nothing in view. He didn't remember being knocked out, but perhaps he was. There was no rail-car, no sounds of rumbling, and no conducting conduit. Link woozily stood up and recovered his lost sword, cursing himself for letting him get away. Letting Mega Man get away? What in the world was going on? There couldn't be two of them, could there? He'd seen some similar robots, of the same design, but he thought Mega Man was a unique robot. Was he fighting for the wrong team?

Just then, Mega Man and Roll came running down the passageway. "Link, are you all right?"

Link withdrew his sword. "Don't come any closer."

"Link, what are you doing?"

A moment of decision brought his sword back down. He remembered all the good Mega Man had done for him and a world he didn't even know. There was no way he would bring up a blade against someone like that. "Sorry. I'm having a rough day. You won't believe what I just saw."

 **Next Chapter: Meeting the Enemy**


	46. Meeting the Enemy

Mega Man commanded the door to open and it did. It had been a long journey back from the New Mexico power plant, even despite using the teleporter. They discussed as they navigated through the lab.

"It's impossible," Roll declared. "Dr. Wily has never been able to successfully make a Rock clone. Not one that didn't need a holographic projector."

"Wait, what's a holographic projector?" Link asked.

Mega Man said, "It's a stationary machine, kind of like the holo-tv. It's needed for producing holograms... or ghosts. It's just a cover-up. A cloak, like an invisibility shield. Wily has done it before. In his first takeover, he fooled me with a clone of myself, using doc technology. That's sort of a process where robot dupes are made with similar appearances and similar technology, but no A.I. He had all the same weapons as I did, and it was a tough battle, but I prevailed, obviously. He was essentially trying a confusion tactic, and it was a good one too. He later revealed doc technology to the world to convince us that he had returned to sanity and reformed."

"Yes," Roll said, "The world was quite thankful, and then they sure felt like idiots when he fooled them all."

"Then in his third takeover, he tried it again. This time though, he made three mes. And he had this device to teleport them around, to keep me guessing which one was the vulnerable one. The other two were just ghosts, but I couldn't tell which plasma blast was coming from the real one, because they all shot at the same time."

"Sounds tricky," Link said.

"It was. I had to shoot them all to see which one was absorbing the blasts and which ones were reflecting it. It was a battle of timing and avoidance. But he needed that machine there to produce the images of myself. Those aren't transportable. So I don't know how Dr. Wily could make a clone of myself."

"So he couldn't use the doc technology to do it?" Link said.

"No, he still needs a holographic emitter, and those aren't transportable. Not only that, but a hologram can't be invisible at the same time. So it can't be a hologram. The only other answer is that he's built a copy of me, with the same information and intelligence. But he's never done that before, why do it now?"

The three presented themselves in front of the large elevator and entered when the doors opened.

"What if it switched holograms in mid-flight," Link said. "From invisible to you."

"It wouldn't have happened the way you described it."

"So he has made a duplicate of you," Roll said. "It's not like it's difficult."

"Then why hasn't Wily done it before?" Link asked. "Why hasn't he created an entire army of his own Mega Mans, er, men."

"Well, the thing is, he's not the strongest robot out there," Roll said.

"Yeah, I was built for tool using, not battle," Mega Man agreed.

"So, it's better for Wily to build a robot intended for battle," Roll said.

"Despite the fact that you beat him every time?" Link asked.

Mega Man shrugged. "What can I say? He's a madman. The very definition of insanity is repeating an action over and over and expecting to get different results."

"He might have Mega Man's body, but not his brains," Roll said. "Dr. Wily was always more centered on the hardware aspect of robotics. Dr. Light was an expert on the software. There's no way Dr. Wily could simply make another Mega Man exactly. All he knew was the physical specifications."

The elevator doors opened and deposited them onto the living floor. They started walking down the hall into the main area.

"All right," Link acquiesced, "So we know Dr. Wily has a Mega Man clone. And he's using it to steal the thing needed to complete his plans."

"But that also doesn't make sense either. My design is not meant for stealth or thieving. So why would Wily make a Mega Man clone? What would he use it for?"

A pleasant tone sounded around them.

"What was that?" Link asked. Mega Man turned the corner and attended to the flashing computer screen sitting on a table.

"The doorbell," Roll said.

"What's a doorbell?"

"A push button at a door that gives a ringing signal that someone is there."

"Oh," Link uttered. "We just knock."

Mega Man accessed the camera feed in front of the door to see who it was. "It's the police!" Mega Man said.

Roll heard the urgency in Rock's voice, but didn't understand it. Mega Man had relations with the police, often collaborating with them for the purposes of finding Dr. Wily, or to testify against him. He'd even been there earlier, why was he so concerned now?

"What's going on?" she asked.

"They're armed," Mega Man said as he dutifully went to the door. Two heavily armored gray robots, holding body-length shields were standing in front of the doorway, blocking a human in a blue uniform who Link guessed was part of law enforcement.

"Mega Man! I... didn't expect... ahem. Mega Man, we're here to place you under arrest. Don't give us any trouble, or we'll be forced to take drastic measures."

"What? Why? What's the problem?" Roll said as she immediately came to Rock's side, holding her hands in plea.

"I take it you haven't looked at the news feed lately."

The two robots and one Hylian gave each other quizzical expressions. Link, the closest, picked up the remote and pressed the power button, aiming it at the rectangle on the wall. A vivid picture flicked on, showing shaky two-dimensional footage of a city, with people scattering around. A blue robot was bouncing up and down and firing plasma blasts wildly. The shaky view zoomed in and unblurred to reveal Mega Man scaring away the civilians. A voice-over described the scene.

"-say that Mega Man was seen in the third precinct, firing wildly at humans and destroying public property. In what is an apparently unprovoked attack, many witnesses have reported injuries and property damage-"

The three looked stunned at what they were seeing. Obviously, the three of them were with Mega Man the entire time so it had to be Wily's clone.

"This is a fake!" Roll declared. "It's obvious. Rock would never do something like this." She turned back to the policeman. "There's a clone out there made by Dr. Wily. He's the one responsible."

Link piped up. "How can this be happening there, when you're here."

"Recorded broadcast," Mega Man said calmly.

"We have no choice," the policeman said. "We came here expecting Dr. Light, but if you're here, we have no choice but to arrest you and take you in, as you are the prime suspect. If you resist, we will use maximum force on you, which may result in permanent damage to your system."

"Dr. Light is currently incapacitated. He's in the hospital."

"In that case, we will definitely have to detain you until Dr. Light can be notified."

"This is ludicrous," Link shouted. "We know there's a fake Mega Man out there. Doesn't he have a reputation here? It would make no sense for him to suddenly go haywire and then come back here casually."

"It doesn't matter," Mega Man said, much to Link's surprise. He hadn't any idea why he was defending his arrest. "I'm their only lead right now, even if there is a second me. Plus with Dr. Light gone, my master is currently unable to issue me commands, and that gives me potential to be a rogue."

The officer seemed to hunker back behind his robot guards. "And by law you are required to be immobilized and taken to a holding facility."

Roll was stricken with a sudden pang of fear. Would Rock try to resist? He could take out the robots with no problem, but if he harmed that human, that would be it for him. He would be destroyed without a moment's hesitation, labeled as a rogue robot. If Rock tried something, they might discover the lack of proper programming within him, and then the rest of the world would, and take him down.

Rock, though, bowed his head in deference. "It's all right, I'll come quietly. I only request that I am not powered down or deactivated until Dr. Light is informed and can get together a sufficient defense for me."

"That's up to the courts to decide. But you won't be turned off, just immobilized."

Mega Man turned to his sister. "I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding. We'll get it cleared up before too long." I hope, Mega Man silently added. "It's not like it's the first time one of our own has been falsely accused."

The policeman picked up a round circle with a small box. "I have to place this on you."

"I understand."

The officer fastened the circle around Mega Man's neck and pressed a button on the box. He felt the immobilizer's effects immediately, reducing his input commands to only respond to basic human orders such as 'move forward' and 'answer questions'. It was more meant to suppress his A.I. and decision-making.

"I'm coming with you," Roll said. "You hear? I'm coming with."

Mega Man slowly nodded.

"Fine," the officer said. "Mega Man, move forward."

"Link!" Roll called out as her brother started his zombie-like movement out the door. The Hylian was still watching the news feed. "I'm going with Mega Man. I'll contact Dr. Light as soon as I know he's safe."

Link nodded, "I'll stay here and see what I can learn."

Roll nodded back and closed the door behind her. Once again, Link was left alone in this house, though now it was less strange than when he entered it. He kept watching the lady behind the desk tell him what had transpired in the 'third precinct' some time ago. He listened intently, never saying a word. Having nothing else new to report, the discussion turned to overbearing analyses by robot sociologists about what this meant for the future of robotics, and going on about the laws, and whether Mega Man had grown too dangerous to be allowed to live. Link, although angered by these jumps to conclusions, pushed it aside and tried to think about how this attack related to the current situation.

Link estimated it had been several hours since his encounter in the tunnel. He had no idea how fast robots could move, but he imagined, since they were mechanical men, they could move pretty fast, even if they weren't teleporting. Faster than the fastest animals he'd seen. It was possible he could have been anywhere in the world from the time he got away.

They went back to the captured video of Mega Man, jumping and spinning around, firing his shots wildly. Link had been on the receiving end of those shots. He knew their deadly accuracy. Something wasn't mixing here. The Mega Man clone was purposefully not trying to hurt people, but why? They were scattering around, running madly away from the geyser of plasma power. The video ended with Mega Man was heading to the left, and they repeated it from beginning to end again. He didn't even look like he was trying. The zoom-in on the robot's face gave him a blank countenance, like he didn't care what he was doing. In the museum, Mega Man had said that it could have been a 'dumb' robot, one controlled remotely by another. He also said, using doc technology, robots could be duplicated with the same appearance, but no intelligence. It seemed like this robot didn't have a lot of personality, at least as far as robots went. Just a mindless battle machine.

The news report came back on and started over, repeating the same story as if he hadn't listened before. She was telling the story beginning to end, saying that Mega Man had emerged from the subway to the surface and suddenly started firing wildly into the crowd, causing mass chaos. No one had seen exactly where he had originated from, but started firing while underground, driving people up to the surface, following them, and then disappearing again in a teleport.

The word underground suddenly caught Link's ear. There were others afterward that were unrecognizable. Mega Man wasn't here to give him a definition though. "Computer?"

A pleasant beep. "Please input command or query."

"What is a 'subway'?"

"Several definitions found. Definition one. An underground way such as a passage under a street. Definition two. A usually electric underground railway."

That was what he was missing. The Mega man clone wasn't trying to kill people. He was trying to get them out of the way. He was trying to get them out of the 'subway', so he could use the railway tracks to transport the conduit coil without being interfered with. Discrediting Mega Man wasn't Wily's plan. It was just a pleasant side effect.

Suddenly, the video image flickered from interference. White lines streaked across, ruining the picture. The words of the woman became disjointed and staticky.

"Hello? Hello?" he called out, trying to get her attention again.

The picture turned to dense snow, and then a blue screen with the words 'VIDEO 1'. Link jerked his head back in surprise. Then the words 'COMMUNICATION STREAMING' appeared at the bottom. The image of a gray-haired old man suddenly filled up the rectangle. His yellowish eyes gleamed in a way that offset Link's comfort. The wild hair sprouting out the sides of his head, along with his thick mustache, completed the picture.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha," he cackled in glee. "So, Dr. Light. How do you like my..." His expression of delight changed to confusion. "You're not Dr. Light," he uttered, partially as a question.

"No, I'm Link. Who are you?"

The old man pressed his liver-spotted forehead to the screen, looking left and right in the room, as if he was trying to punch through to look around. "Where's Dr. Light?"

"He's in the hospital."

"The hospital? What happened to him?"

"Not sure. I think he was injured."

"Is Roll there?"

"No."

"Mega Man?"

"No."

"Well, who are you, the butler?"

"No!" Link declared, a little offended.

"Does Dr. Light know you're in his house?"

"Yes, I'm a friend of Mega Man. What do you care? Who are you?"

"I'm Dr. Wily," he said, pressing his palm to his chest proudly.

"Really?" Link thought of how much uglier in person he was. "You're Dr. Wily?" he said as he crossed his arms defiantly. He sure didn't look so tough.

"The one and only. If you would be so kind as to leave a message for Dr. Light telling him how I'm about to finally complete my plans to take over the world and to dare Mega Man to try and stop me."

"Well, I don't think Mega Man will be stopping much of anything lately. Some law enforcement just came to take him away."

Dr. Wily again blinked in confusion. "Really? That fast, huh?" He sat back a bit from the screen and stroked his mustache contemplatively. "Ha, ha, yes, how do you like my newest creation. I figured if I had to have someone to do my dirty work, why not him? Quite ingenious, don't you think?"

"Not really. Doesn't seem like anything new for you. You've made Mega Man clones before."

Dr. Wily sputtered at this impudence from a stranger. "What do you know of what I've done you... you... renaissance fair reject!"

Link, not knowing what a renaissance fair was, neglected to comment on the insult.

Dr. Wily continued. "This Mega Man clone is the real thing. A perfect specification of all his circuitry, a fresh start. And I've changed his A.I. to my specifications, the way it should have been. Now he obeys my orders, he does my bidding, and he won't let little humans stand in his way. He won't be wandering willy-nilly where he wants. Nothing can stop him." He sat back a bit from the screen. "I'd hoped to keep my little secret until the final confrontation, but when he damaged his light cloak, I had to speed up the revelation that Mega Man's not so alone in the world anymore."

"Er, yes... _he_ damaged it," Link mumbled and rolled his eyes.

"He even has an energy shield. So even if Mega Man could manage to hit him, his shots would be useless, ha, ha, ha. So now he truly has no hope of defeating me. I will rule the world."

"Uh-huh. So is there a point to all this, or do you just like to hear the sound of your own voice?"

Dr. Wily gritted his teeth and leaned menacingly closer to the screen. "Just tell Dr. Light or Mega Man or whoever's there that's of any significance that I'm in the process of obtaining the last three elements to complete Dr. Selkirk's vision. A vision of a robot's power combined with the spirit of a human. It will be glorious. All I need now are an imbalance collider, a photonic density carrier, and an inverser. Then I'll have the ultimate power of a robot in my hands. I'll convert the entire world to robots."

"Seems like the world's already full of robots. Not sure what difference you're going to make."

"Bah, humans are a poor race. They fight each other over petty things, they foolishly believe in myths just to make themselves feel better. They are weak minds in bodies they don't deserve. Robots are the superior species now. I'll eliminate the humans' flaws by placing them in robot bodies. Then I'll have power over all of them."

"Kay. Whatever."

Dr. Wily looked stunned at Link's defiance, his eyes going wide and his jaw dropping. Link smirked at his expression. Apparently, Wily was used to people fearing him in this world. But Link wasn't from this world, and had no reason to be scared of an eccentric old man.

"You impudent fool," he said calmly and pointed at Link. "I'll teach you some respect. I had originally meant this for Light and his ilk, but now you'll get to enjoy it. Experience the wrath of Dr. Wily."

Link rolled his eyes as the scientist hit a button on the console in front of him below the screen. His visage disappeared and the house was filled with a harmonic whirring noise coming from all sides. Link darted his head around to try and find the source, but it was everywhere, he couldn't get a lock on it.

Some sort of green air was starting to surround him, making everything hazy. He sniffed the air, but it was odorless. He looked up and saw that it was more concentrated in the ceiling, probably being pumped out from there.

The last thing he remembered was standing up.

 **Next Chapter: Dream Sequence**


	47. Dream Sequence

"Uhhhgh," Link said as he held his head. He rubbed his forehead, disheveling his green cap. He felt like he'd just dropped his brain in the mud and was trying to shake off the sludge. His blurry vision caught sight of something brown and solid in front of him. He reached his hand out for it, held on, and stood up. The rough, dry texture told him it was a rock. Shaking his head awake, he looked around. A like-like was sloughing forward nearby, dragging its jelly-like body along the wet grass. Other critters like rabbit fangs and pickit plants were scurrying around in the tall milkweeds, oblivious of his presence. He was back home. Although he couldn't quite recall how.

In fact, his entire memory was fuzzy, as he found when he tried to remember what the last thing he was doing was. He knew he was doing something before this, but couldn't recall what it was. For some reason, he knew he wasn't here before, but where was he? He leaned up against the rock, and brushed his eyes open, a displeased grimace on his face as he woke up.

Without warning, the animals stopped moving, as if frozen in time. They all slowly turned their heads and bodies to face Link, centering on him. Their eyes bore into his, and their jaws dropped in an unearthly manner, emitting a horrible tone.

"Uh-oh."

Every monster started dragging, hopping, or in some other way sauntering over, slowly surrounding him. He could see a great circle of nearly every type of monster turning from their path and coming towards him, trapping him. With his back to the rock, he reached for his sword and found... nothing. His scabbard was empty.

He reached into his holding bag to get his rods... but that was empty too. Dry as a bone, like it had never held a thing. Link gulped in terror. He didn't even have his shield.

"Uh, nice monsters... go away, shoo."

Gnashing their teeth, licking their chops, and just burbling with anger, they closed in on him, their shadows growing larger and shrouding him in darkness. Link hunched himself into a ball.

"Nayru's Love!"

Suddenly, he was covered in a blue diamond shell, the two halves spinning around fiercely in opposite directions. The animals that attacked him bounced back like rubber, leaving him unharmed.

"Din's Fire!"

A wall of flame burst out from somewhere and washed over the landscape. Link could feel the heat sweeping toward him, but the protective shield did its job, and he didn't feel the slightest pain. The rest of the monsters were consumed in the flames and either vanished or ran off with their tails between their legs.

Link, finding himself not dead or mauled, uncovered his face and looked around. The shield around him broke apart, and the area where he stood sharply darkened to night, shrouded in green-orange sky. The ground below him gave way to a low mist that covered his feet. A feminine silhouette appeared in the distance.

"Liiiink," it whispered.

"Hello? Who's there?"

The silhouette stepped forward, revealing herself as a young woman, her eyes shrouded in darkness.

"Zelda?" Link uttered. "You saved me? But you're not here."

"You're dreaming, Link."

"That- that's right, I am dreaming. I was... with Mega Man. In the other world. But I'm still talking to you. But this can't be. This doesn't feel like a dream."

"The telepathy still exists between us. I'm still in Hyrule, but I'm dreaming too. We can still speak across the dreamscape, no matter how much our physical distance is. Where are you?"

"I'm in Mega Man's world. I got kinda put here by accident. It's an interesting story actually. Hee, hee."

Zelda put her hands on her hips indignantly, as she always did whenever Link gave that sheepish grin of his. The elfish boy started his tale from when she last saw Mega Man, when they went to Kakariko Village to stop the invasion by the moblins. Link followed the battle in vivid, action-packed detail, at which Zelda tuned out for a bit. He finished up at the point where the cave was about to collapse in on itself.

"And since I had about a split-second to think, I dived into the portal and I ended up here."

"So the fourth Triforce piece was a fake," Zelda mused. "I suppose we should have realized that all along."

"Well, we needed to investigate it anyway. At least there won't be any more moblins around."

"It's good to know you're safe. I was starting to get worried, after word came that you had discovered an underground passage, I thought you were searching another temple."

"Yeah..." Link kicked the ground absent-mindedly. Although he had regaled his tale in fullest splendor, there was one section he had left out. He was sure he didn't want to tell her about it at the time, but now that he had a chance to reflect, maybe this was the righter thing to do. "Zelda, there's something I gotta tell you. Something I left out." He wasn't expecting to have to deal with this now. But it would be burning in his mind if he didn't say it.

"Yes, Link?" she asked with eager anticipation.

"When I was in the underground temple under the lost woods, we found a, sort of, hidden room. It's... well, maybe you oughta go check it out for yourself. It's important."

"Is that the one with the epigraphs of our predecessors."

"Epi-...? The what?"

"The legends. The stories of those who came before us. The other keepers of the Triforce."

"Wha... you know about that?"

"I'm the keeper of the Triforce of Wisdom. Of course I knew about that. All the royal family knows about that. How else do you think I knew you were the hero of destiny?"

"I... er..."

"That temple was first known as the Temple of Time, the resting place of the Master Sword and the nexus of the Imprisoning War. Over various circumstances, natural and man-made, it was buried deep within the lost woods, but not before it was stocked with the knowledge of those who came before, so that their legends would live on. It was never found, but I knew of its existence."

"Uh-huh, well, that information could have been useful to me YESTERDAY!" He yelled out with fists shaking behind him. "Do you know how much I've thought about what this means for us? Do you know how much I've been agonizing over telling you this? No, you know what? Forget you. Do you know how much I've been agonizing over this myself?"

Zelda stood there, calm and cool, listening with empathy as Link spilled his guts. She could sense over the dreamscape that Link wasn't angry with her, but he was trying to purge himself of the emotions he was feeling. He didn't understand why she wasn't angry at this situation.

"Don't you feel manipulated? Coerced?" Link demanded to know.

Zelda shook her head.

He said, "You've been forced into doing something that you had no say over. Everyone else gets to choose how they want to live their life, but our lives... they've had their choice ripped away."

"Link, none of our lives have any choice. We're all fated for something. We're all being led on a path some way somewhere. That's our destiny. That's the way the goddesses planned it."

Link was flabbergasted. "Are you telling me you like the idea of having our lives led for us? You like the idea of having to always protect Hyrule whenever evil covers the land? For all of time?"

"But it's not us. It's our descendants. They may not be of our bloodline, but we are their predecessors. If we didn't defeat the evil, there would be no future generations of Hyrule to defend it."

"Doesn't it bother you that we'll never find peace though? I mean, according to those legends, the evil is never going to die. Never. It'll never be defeated. We'll always be fighting and fighting until the end of time." He slunk back against the rock. "There will never be peace in Hyrule."

"How can you say that?" Zelda said with feminine anger. "There's peace there right now."

"It's only temporary. Ganon will come back. He'll never stop coming back."

"The price of peace is eternal vigilance. Unless you want to restrict the freedom of Hyrule citizens. Post guards at every home. Confiscate all weapons and magic. Border up towns. That sort of thing."

Link looked away, unhappy at being put in an impossible question.

Zelda continued. "It's not so bad, really. The evil comes out, we put it back in. Life goes on. There are things to do in between those times. You have a choice then. You can explore the world. You can make your own path. Once, the goddesses left it up to us to choose our hero, to initiate the keepers of the Triforce. It didn't work. We looked to the one who had come before, but he was long gone. And this is what happened."

Zelda waved her arm back and the darkness lifted. The sky brightened to high noon. And Link found himself standing on a tiny island in the middle of a great sea. Squinting his eyes, adjusting to the sudden brightness, Link dashed his head around, standing up like a rod from where he was leaning against the rock. There was nothing but a wide blue plain, pulsating with blue water lapping at the shore of the round ball of land. The expanse of water was enormous, never had Link seen anything like it. He'd never even seen the sea and suddenly felt very small.

"What? Where is this?" Link asked as he treaded the edge of the island, trying to look past the horizon.

"This is... was Hyrule. When the seal of the Sages broke, Ganon was free, and there was no hero to protect us. So the goddesses did the only thing they could do. They flooded the land. Endless rain. Endless, until there was nothing left but a few mountaintops. But the evil was suppressed, deep within the castle under the sea. And the people adapted to life on the Great Sea. Ganondorf broke free of the surface and created a fortress in a lone corner of the ocean to regroup his takeover. At that point, the hero appeared, thankfully. He recovered the Triforce, re-sealed Ganondorf away, and drained away the water." Zelda walked up behind Link and put a hand on his shoulder. "That's why you are so important, Link."

"Then it was true," Link muttered, thinking about all the lore and history that had been revealed to him. The truth was staring him right in the face, he had just never accepted it.

"The 'what' that happens is something we don't have control over. The 'how' of what we do about it is completely up to us. The goddesses simply set the game board. We decide how we want to move."

Link made a defiant guttural noise. "But the only way to win is not to play."

"Even gods make mistakes, I suppose. We didn't start this, and I'm sorry for that. But we're the only ones who can end it. And we have free will in that regard. We're the most important people in the shaping of Hyrule's future. The gods chose wisely," she paused. "I don't know anyone better I'd want holding the Triforce of Courage."

Link tore his eyes away from the empty void before him for the first time and looked at Zelda. She was smiling sweetly at him with her hands clasped in front of her dress. He felt a sensation on the back of his hand and looked at it. The mark of the Triforce was glowing, highlighting his piece.

"We match," she said with a small laugh, and held up her hand as well. It was glowing with the same triangle symbol, only the highlighted piece was on the left side.

"We can make Hyrule better," she said.

Link looked from his symbol to her's for a moment, then put his hand back down. "When did you get so smart?"

"Triforce of Wisdom, remember?" Zelda smiled as she pointed at her hand.

"Heh, right."

"So when are you going to get back?"

"Not sure. Apparently, Mega Man's owner, or programmer, or keeper... well, he got injured while he was in my world. And the machine he used to get him here is broken. So when he gets out of the infirmary, he'll be able to fix it back up and send me home."

"Infirmary? They can't use a healing fairy?"

"They have no healing fairies. They have no magic."

"No magic... whatsoever?"

"No magic," Link repeated. "No fire rod, no magic potions, not even my lantern works. So I've been feeling kinda useless here. But they've been really accepting of me in the mean time. They've got plenty of interesting things to eat. And Mega Man even has a sister. She took me shopping yesterday. All the people here are nothing like you've ever seen. Everyone tries to sell you something. And none of the women wear any clothes practically."

Zelda opened her eyes as wide as dinner plates in surprise, then concern, then anger.

"Er, not that I've noticed," Link amended.

"Well, I'm glad you're having a good time," she said sarcastically.

"But the world is full of mechanical men, just like Mega Man. They're hundreds of them. Like there are two races in the world, competing for dominance. You could cut the tension with a knife. I know he said we were too separated for our own good, but his world is too close together. They're packed in so tightly, they have to build buildings up to the sky. It's like the world is brimming with war. There's even this guy Dr. Wily-" Link's eyes suddenly struck large, upon his realization. "Oh no, the gas! He's still out there. He left something in the house and he gassed me. I've been gassed! Poison gas! I need to wake up! Wake up! Wake up, Link!"

"Wake up!"

Link found himself shouting 'wake up' into the carpet. His nose was squished against the floor, in between the couch and the coffee table.

"Wha?" He pushed himself on his hands and knees and looked around. The green gas was gone, perhaps diffused or sucked away by the ventilators. He was alive and back in Mega Man's world. But he had a massive headache.

"Uhhhgh," Link said as he held his head. He propped himself back up on the couch, closed his eyes, and held his throbbing head, resting his elbows on his knees.

"...R.A.I.D. and several other anti-robot organizations have set up camp outside the Civil Robot Defense Holding Facility, demanding the permanent deactivation of Mega Man."

"What?" he said to the voice. He then realized that it was the rectangle portal to the Computer, giving the news. There was a different woman this time, narrating over a live picture of a large crowd of people holding signs and looking angry outside a fenced-in building.

"The unusual amount of protestors has prompted police guards to mobilize outside the facility to prevent unauthorized access to Mega Man. Police Chief Muggins stated in a press conference that he fears rioting may occur, and so has brought out all necessary precautions."

The screen switched to a fat man speaking in front of a short stick attached to a podium. "Due to the volatile nature of the circumstances of Mega Man's detainment, we've decided to mobilize the riot prevention measures at this time. I stress that this is only in effort to ensure that peace is kept and that the detainee does not become a victim of mob justice."

"Mob justice?" Link repeated incredulously.

The screen went back to the reporter. "Some people say they've seen individuals toting EMP weapons and other anti-robot guns. If Mega Man is taking out of the facility publicly, he is a likely target for a civilian assassination."

"Assassination!" Link replied. "I've got to get over there now!"

Link gathered his stuff and headed out the door. Fifteen seconds later, he realized he had no idea where he was going.

 **Next Chapter: Protest**


	48. Protest

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> "I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him."  
> -Booker T. Washington  
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Link's knees were bouncing from anxiety, as he watched the buildings and cars pass by on the skyway. This was faster than he had ever gone before, but for some reason it still didn't feel fast enough. The taxi must have had a preset speed limit which he could reach. No matter how many times he pleaded with the robot driver he stated he could not excel the legal limit. If only Link had known how to work the teleporter he wouldn't need to deal with this.

He would have used the vehicle in Mega Man's stable, but after some... failed attempts with that, he had to ask the computer to order him a taxi delivered to his residence. He just hoped Mega Man had enough money to cover the damage he did. They should just use horses if they didn't want things to get damaged. Horses were smarter. A horse would have stopped before it hit a wall.

Then trying to get the taxicab to go where he wanted was as difficult. He apparently didn't understand where 'Mega Man is being held' was. He was a robot, he had a Computer, how could he not know where Mega Man was? It was on all the news feeds, whatever those were. This was like trying to find a way out of a labyrinth with just a torch. He was forced to order the man to activate one of the news channels, so they could listen and find out where Mega Man exactly was. Then the cab driver said that since the area was out of his 'designated driving radius', the trip was going to cost extra. That was little matter to Link. He might as well have been trying to ride a mule up a mountain. So Link was stuck measuring the speed of their journey by the passing structures.

"You're sure this is the fastest we can go?" Link pleaded.

"The current speed is the maximum velocity designated for this skyway, as declared by the Transportation Department-"

"Yeah, yeah," Link interrupted his repeated spiel about how he couldn't go any faster because he wasn't programmed to.

"If you're interested in speed," the driver said, "Try visiting the Enzan Raceway. The Championship Cup racers fight for the glamour-"

"Oh, shut up," Link said. "Turn on the news feed again."

The humanoid torso stopped talking and hit a button on the dashboard. The voice of a man piped through the vehicle with a straight, no-nonsense tone.

"-words of the RAID director, in a press conference a few hours ago."

The voice then switched to a gruffer one.

"And we are completely committed to seeing justice served in this case. Mega Man has always been a thorn in our sides. We hate to say we knew this day would come when our so-called 'purveyor of justice' would finally get his comeuppance. It is time to realize that robots are not artificial people. They are tools made by men, for men. The so-called 'smartness' of these machines is just an illusion created by people like Dr. Wily. They want to turn planet Earth into more metal than dirt."

"That's not true!" Link said. "Mega Man is a-"

The man kept talking though, oblivious of Link's attempts to communicate.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Link said angrily.

"Yes?" the cab driver replied.

"Not you. That guy!" he pointed to the dashboard.

"That's a one-way communication, son. You can hear him, he can't hear you."

"Oh." Link, practically out of his seat with anger, slumped back down against the backrest.

"That's why they call 'em broadcasts. They send out the signal from one area, and then all of us pick it up and play it back. Didn't you learn that in school?"

"I never really had a formal education."

The cab driver shrugged, and the anti-robot speaker continued his drivel, to which Link listened closely.

"The real revolution is upon us. Not one deigned by its creator to control robots for the purposes of world domination. Oh, no. This will come from the robots themselves. The next generation is already here. When they can think for themselves, speak for themselves, and now, attack humans for themselves. And any humans who sympathize with them will find themselves on the losing side of the war. For as soon as their opposition is wiped out, all 'natural' intelligent life will be eliminated. And Mega Man is just the beginning. He needs to be eliminated first. As a sign that we, the people of earth, born naturally, are not going to sit here while our world is overrun by these things."

The voice switched again, back to the commanding tone of before.

"That was Crane Funaking, leader of the anti-robot coalition, RAID, in a speech delivered outside his headquarters earlier today. For those of you just joining us, this speech was brought on by the apparent arrest of Mega Man, six-time defender of the world, and robot, who was accused of assaulting citizens in front of precinct thirteen. He is currently being held at the robot detainment facility, at which robots protestors are gathering. Pro-robot organizations are now calling up their members to fill the balance outside the facility. Already several clashes have broken out, but were stopped quickly by police. The Chief Law Enforcement division is now sending out riot squads to stop any uprisings before they happen. As the number of demonstrators outside Mega Man's holding cell increases, we may very well see a riot before very long, said Chief Muggins."

"A riot!" Link said. "I have to get there now!"

"Well, there it is down there." The cab dipped low and peeled off the skyway. The number of cars and modernization of the landscape had dwindled to structures with a maximum of two stories. The hover-cab floated down near the outside of a fenced building, surrounded on the perimeter with chain-mail walls and curly wires at the top. Link pulled the door handle open but it wouldn't budge. The driver turned around and held out his hand. "The price of the trip is 120 units. Please give me your cash card or other currency."

Units? What was a unit? Link thought it was rupees. Roll explained those cards were just replacements for physical money. Well, a rupee was a unit of money. He picked out a selection of red rupees and shoved them in the driver's rubbery hand.

"Hey, what's this?" he exclaimed as Link tried the door again.

"They're the same. A red's worth twenty here still, isn't it? Come on, open the door."

"I cannot accept this as currency."

"Look, that's the last money I have. Just let me out."

"Unless you accept the charges, I will be forced-"

"Hiya!"

Link wound up his big boot and thrust it at the window. The pane of glass popped open in one piece. He dove out onto the dusty ground, arms first, and rolled to a stop. Leaving the cab driver contemplating what in the world Link had just given him, he sprinted along the fence to a collection of people and vehicles at the entrance.

He ran past the big bulky humans, dressed in black fatigues and helmets with visors that covered their faces.

One of them held out his hand, to which Link skidded to a stop. "Whoa, there, where you going son?"

"Inside," he panted. "Got to... get to... friend."

"All right, the entrance is that way, where those guys are." He helpfully pointed out. Link sped off, overhearing the man say to another. "He's going to get his friend. The fewer of these zealots there are, the better."

"Yeah, bloody 'freedom to demonstrate' amendment," the other said. The rest of the conversation was lost when he went out of earshot.

The Hylian arrived at a section of the fence portioned out and replaced with a metal archway, similar to the one he'd seen at the museum.

"Where's your sign?" said one of the two guards at the gate.

"No sign. Just need to get in there," he breathed.

"Whatever, just step through. Weapons check."

Link punched through the open-air doorway, which immediately sounded an alarm as soon as he breached it. He stopped just under the arc as the soldier on the other side, and two behind him approached.

"All right, hold it," said one of the guards behind him. Link spun to face him. "Whatcha got there? Phazer gun? Tear gas?"

"What?"

"Here," the one behind him said, pointing to his back. Link feeling the eyes on him, turned around in a battle stance. "Let's see that. Can't believe I missed it."

He withdrew the sword from his scabbard on his back. The hilt was hidden by his long hair, making it easier to misinterpret with a decorative accessory.

"A sword?" he was visibly taken aback by the archaic weapon. "Nah-uh, son, save it for the school play. Give it here."

"I am not giving you my sword."

"And you think I'm gonna let you in there, so you can start chopping off heads? Give it here or we're arrestin' you." He curled his fingers up, motioning for the blade.

"Think again, soldier."

"This is a stun-gun, here," He said, pulling it out of its holster at the hip. The two others did the same. "It's non-lethal, it'll knock you to the ground. And I'm authorized to use it against belligerents who don't comply with the rules. Now give it here."

Link darted his eyes around at his three foes, then smirked. "Stun this."

He whipped around faster than any human reaction could encompass, swiped his blade diagonally across and back once. The guns fell apart in two pieces from the hot metal that went through it. The one soldier blocking the entrance to the facility dropped to his knees. The two others backed away with their hands up.

Link held his sword behind him, concentrating his might. "Here's what I think of your security." Magic might not have worked in this world, but that didn't mean he still couldn't perform the maneuver. Focusing his strength he whipped around in a 360 degree spin, slicing the archway in two. Sparks burst out from the cracks. The upper portion slid off and fell on the ground with a thud. This demonstration finished, he sheathed his sword, hopped over the debris, and ran down to the crowd of people holding signs in front of the one-story rectangular building stranded in the field. "Sorry!" he yelled as he left.

The guards rose up from their cowardly positions slowly and opened their eyes. "Well? Stop him!" one said.

The guard closest to the fray took off after Link. The two others stepped up to their broken security door.

"How did he do that?" one said as he scratched his head, "That was pure titanium."

The other just shrugged.

Link, seeing one of the guards was hot on his trail and speaking into a box as he ran, quickened his pace toward the crowds. Two groups were separated, facing each other, being blocked off by wooden horses and guards with glass shields. For a brief moment, Link thought such a thing, if implementable, would be a fantastic idea. The separation created a convenient walkway for him to reach the door. Unfortunately, the soldiers, apparently having been contacted telepathically by the one pursuing him, broke ranks and two headed toward him. Thinking fast, he disappeared in the sea of bright colors and throngs of upheld signs at the right. He melded well into the mob shouting obscenities at the door. The police, having lost track of him, started muscling through the people. It wasn't as easy for them as it was for Link, who's small size allowed him to dart in and out of the spaces in between. The police only shoved aside those in their way, who were apparently oblivious and stayed as excellent blocks.

Link, utilizing his agility to its max, busted through the masses, guessing what direction was the best to head for. As long as he could see the dead gray of the building ahead of him in the gaps of the mob, he thought he was going in the right direction. Rolling under a tall man's legs, he reoriented himself and hopped onto the steps of the holding facility. Knocking furiously on the door with both fists, he pleaded, "Open up, please, please, please, open up, now, please!" He whipped his head back, seeing the black guards were walking toward him, holding out their weapons.

"Hey, look!" one of the picketers called out, pointing up to Link. "He's breakin' in!"

"Crud," Link muttered. Like a landslide of thick mud they flowed towards the door and up the stairs, swallowing up the police guards. Link saw a vision of an immediate future of pain about to wash over him.

Suddenly, the door opened, sliding up. Link fell forward, but was caught from impact by a pair of arms that grabbed his and pulled him inside. The door nearly cut the heels off his boots as it shut the instant he was in, though he could hear the pounding of the masses threatening to break it down.

"I told you he's a friend of mine," a familiar feminine voice stated. Link looked up at his savior.

"Roll!" he yelled in relief. "You have no idea-"

"How much you owe me. Don't worry. You can make it up later," she winked. She turned to a police guard sitting behind a sectioned off desk near the door, monitors lined up in a row. He was clothed in a different, less threatening uniform without the helmet. He was watching a TV screen showing the situation outside. "How is it?" Roll asked.

"They won't break in. But a riot is about a minute from breaking out, I'd wager."

"Great," she moaned.

"What? What's going on?" Link asked.

Roll held a hand out to the man and said, "This is the captain of the facility. We're keeping an eye outside to see if things get worse."

"Where's Mega Man? I heard he was going to get lynched."

"He's fine. He's still in his holding cell. We figured that was the best place for him now. But he's been released."

"He has?" Link smiled.

"Well, not released," said the captain, "But he's been found in the clear."

Roll continued. "There wasn't enough evidence to hold him. No one got hurt directly by the Mega Man clone. And they have his and my records of where we were during the attack, plus alibis from the plant in New Mexico."

"But we can't let him out of here," the captain said. "Those protestors would tear him apart. They're already set to tear each other apart."

Roll nodded. "We're working on a plan to get those people away from the door so we can get Mega Man out of here."

"Can't he teleport away?"

Roll shook her head. "Tachyon field in a mile radius. It's usually for everyone else's protection so robots don't escape. Kind of ironic that it's for his right now."

"How about a back exit? Is there another way out of here?"

Roll shook her head again.

"Underground? Are there any tunnels? Passageways? Secret trap doors?"

Roll shook her head again.

"How about a disguise?" he pointed at the captain, "Could we dress him up like a guard and escort him out?"

"They'd spot him the instant he comes out with us. People would instantly suspect something. He's got a pretty recognizable robot figure. Hard to disguise those boots."

"Um," Link racked his brain. "Are there any transports going out? Perhaps we could put him in a food barrel and ship him out?"

"Actually," Roll said, "About the only way out is through that door. The other is a fire exit, and that only opens by computer command when there's a fire."

Link grimaced, having his brain drained of immediate ideas.

Roll looked up at the ceiling, as if talking to the building. "This place was designed to keep robots in, not let them out. Robots don't have the same rights as humans, they don't need food delivered daily, they don't need beds or plumbing or open air. They need four strong walls and no possible way to escape unless they're allowed. This place was designed for keeping robots in, not letting them out."

"It sure is," Link scoffed. He turned back outside, listening to the pounding and scuffling grow louder, but farther away.

The captain said, "Looks like the guards have got them off the steps. Thank god for small things."

Link, still glaring warily at the door, said, "Do they even know he's been set free?"

Roll replied, "Would they even listen if we told them? Mob mentality is too strong for us. It's strange. People in masses become stronger and more unwavering in their opinions than they would be alone."

"They're idiots. Zealots," the captain said. "Just following one idiot with enough charisma to make people listen. We wouldn't be where we are if it wasn't for robots."

Link was confused, "But you're the guard of a robot prison?"

"Robot holding facility. Not quite a prison. It's for robots accused of crimes before they stand trial. And just because I run it doesn't mean I believe robots should be eliminated. Those fundamentalists want to go back to eating tree bark. We wouldn't have evolved past making fire if it wasn't for technology. And we won't be able to advance any further if we don't keep developing. Just some people think robots should be kept dumb. They especially set their sights on Mega Man. They think he's too powerful for his own good. All they needed was something like this to set them off."

Link nodded. "I don't understand their problem. This Dr. Wily is the one who they really should be afraid of. And he's just like them. That's why he wants to assert control over all robots. If it wasn't for Mega Man, there'd be someone like Dr. Wily ruling this world right now."

"Right, but if it wasn't for Dr. Wily, there wouldn't be a Mega Man."

"Wait, what?" Link arched his eyebrow.

"Since Dr. Wily created Mega Man-"

"He did what!" Link looked to Roll incredulously. She simply shrugged. "Dr. Wily... created Mega Man?"

"Partially," Roll said meekly, yet confidently. "With Dr. Light as his partner. They also created me. And a handful of other robots that he used for the first robot revolution. The others were of his own design."

"I never knew that," he said.

"I thought you did," Roll said.

Link cast his eyes up to the heavens. He felt like he should have been more shocked, but with all the revelations he'd been exposed to, maybe his sense of surprise was becoming dulled. Perhaps it was the combination of disclosure and unresovable sadness of the situation. Not only did Mega Man have to fight against his fellow robots, he also had to fight against his creator. Much like Ganondorf was the cause of his inauguration. They were more similar than he ever thought. He felt an inexplicable bond with the poor mechanical man down there in that cell. Even more resolutely, he was determined to find some way to help him. No matter what the cost.

Link turned and approached the door. "Open it."

"What?" the captain said.

"Open it. This is the only way we're getting out of here, and there's only one way to make it accessible. Do it."

The captain looked at Roll, who shrugged, having no more notion what he was doing than anyone. He raised his eyebrows and sighed, flicking some switches to unlock the partition.

Link knew what he was doing. He was scared to death, but that wasn't stopping him. It never did before. He knew a hundred people under the influence of their own high horse was more of a threat than ten Ganons. And there was no weapon he had that could defend against a riot if it grew to one.

The door slid up, the commotion of the shouting picketers was near overwhelming. Link immediately stepped out so they could shut the door behind him. Upon the sight of the boy, they thrust their picket signs at him, shouted obscenities, while the guards did their best to hold them back.

"Wait," Link said. "Stop! Stop!" He shouted as best he could over the din, but their voices were so sonorous no one could hear him, even if they wanted to. "Stop! Listen! Listen to me!" he tried again. It appeared the people wanted to shout and a raise a ruckus more than they wanted to listen to someone who possibly knew what was going on.

Seeing no point in trying to contend voice against voice with a hundred people, Link twisted his body to fish a bomb out of his knapsack. He lit it and tossed it way above the heads of the masses. The blue globe spun end over end and exploded at the peak of the launch, looking like a decorative firework. The people stopped their shouting and looked up above, half in fright, half in awe.

In their split-second of silence, Link immediately seized the opportunity to be heard. "Mega Man is innocent!" he shouted. The mob listened to him, stilling their cardboard signs. "He is not guilty. Dr. Wily is. He built a clone of Mega Man and sent it after you. It wasn't even to hurt people, it was just to get them out of the way so he could move his stolen technology."

"So what? He's dangerous!" a crowd man shouted. The masses began murmuring, threatening to explode again.

Link quelched it. "You're dangerous. You can kill people. Mega Man's no more dangerous than you."

"He can't be controlled!" another patron called out. The crowd muttered positive grunts along with this.

"Can you?" Link yelled back. "I know there's no difference between humans and robots. They may have different bodies, but if Mega Man wasn't famous, could you tell him from other humans on the street? When he came to my world, I couldn't tell the difference between him as a man or a machine. He fooled me. He convinced me he was just as good as human by his mannerisms and his personality, and his helping attitude towards others. Even after he tried to explain it to me, I still didn't believe he wasn't real. He's saved your world countless times from oppression by robots, by fighting against his own kind. Because he sees something in you that's worth saving. He's never asked for anything in return but acceptance. And you can't even give him that. No, this is how you repay him. By standing ready with a rope and a branch the moment he makes one mistake. A mistake he didn't even commit! He's been set free, but you won't let him free because you refuse to listen to the truth. He risks his own life for you. Stopping that madman."

"But he always comes back!" an unknown replied.

"He's useless," another said.

"Useless? If he wasn't there in the first place, you'd be dead. Forget whether he comes back or not. Mega Man stops Dr. Wily every time he threatens your world, and just because he's never been able to put him away for good, you'd sacrifice your hero? You'd be defenseless, you realize? Who would take Mega Man's place?" He started pointing to random people in the crowd. "You? Or you? Would you do it? Could you do it? Mega Man is the best because he needs to be. So you can have a future. He's not the one who started this but he's the one who can end it. We all have choices to make, and he chose to give up his choices so you would be free, so you could live in peace. He's locked into his fate, so you could decide your own. You can make your own choice, a choice to live your life the way you want. But he sacrificed his. You might think he doesn't care because he's a robot. But the people around him who appreciate him do care. They're the ones that feel the hurt when you do this. But Mega Man does have a heart. Otherwise, he would never put up with you. If I were treated like this where I come from, I would have abandoned you a long time ago." He paused for a breath. "I wish I could be half the man he is."

He paused for a moment to let that sink into the crowd. With one last poignant line left, he said, "If you want to condemn him, do it for things he's done, not for what he is."

The protestors on both sides kept their eyes straight on Link, for the most part, some of them darted around, some looked at the ground, but no one said a word. That was what astonished Link the most. Up to that point. Then he saw a young boy in the middle of the crowd drop his anti-robot sign angrily on the ground and shove those around him aside so he could leave. Those in his way let him go.

Link was amazed when he saw the people were actually listening to him. After coming from a world where people were so divided, caught in the net of their own misbeliefs about witchcraft, science, and the way things were, he was surprised to find that he had actually made a valid, unarguable point. Link had never successfully persuaded someone at home that their idea was wrong, so he was beside himself with his own disbelief. At the precedence of the boy, a few others dropped their signs and left the crowd. Link was not sure whether they were dejected at being defeated or being proven wrong.

Someone among the mob clapped his hands together once. And then again. Then others started picking up the beat. Soon the clapping evolved into full on applause. Some members started chanting, "Mega! Mega!" faster and faster, a tribute to their hero who they had not seen until their eyes were open. The entire yard in front of the holding facility was abuzz with ovation and chanting "Mega! Mega! Mega!" with fists pumping in the air.

Link, smiling from ear-to-ear, turned around to go back in and tell Roll the good news. But to his surprise, the door was already open, and Roll was standing there with her arm around her brother, who was looking down at the ground sadly.

He perked his head up at hearing the positive sound of the crowd, apparently expecting something different. He stepped out beside Link and the crowd went wild, cheering and rooting for their champion.

"Are we okay?" Mega Man asked.

"Oh, yeah," he smirked. "I think we're good."

He looked once more over the crowd and then back to Link. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. Just save the world one more time for us." He then told Mega Man everything Dr. Wily had told him, making very sure to precisely disclose all the technical terms he'd tried so hard to remember when the crazy doctor was rattling them off.

"An imbalance collider, a photonic density carrier, and an inverser, hmm. Those don't exactly sell well at the convenience store."

Roll said, "There's probably only three places that have those, and he probably has robot masters there already, if he was audacious enough to tell you his plan."

"And probably the same ones he sent after me," Mega Man said. "We can't let Wily fulfill his plan, so we need to get moving."

"Wait," Roll said. "If they're still using their energy shields then you don't stand a chance against them, no matter what you do."

"Then we'll need someone who fights a bit more physically than myself." He looked hopefully at Link, the same way Link looked at him in Hyrule. "There are three possible places where those pieces of technology exist. One of them is the Ultratech factory. It's currently the biggest technology factory in existence. The other two are the Lasseter Hydroelectric Plant and the space station."

"Space station?" Link asked.

"Uh, it's... I'll explain later." If Link wasn't sure what a planet was, he was going to have a hard time explaining space, and all the following questions therein. "The factory is closest. We'll take a Mach Jet and head there." He turned to his sister. "Roll, contact those places and see what their status is. Let them know what's going on."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," she held out her hand. "If you think I'm just going to stay here and play secretary to you, you're dead wrong."

"Sorry, Roll, it's too dangerous right now. In times before, we knew what Dr. Wily was doing and his pieces were already in place. This time we have the chance to nip him in the bud. But we have no idea how to predict the circumstances."

"You said you weren't going to leave me out now that I'm capable of defending myself."

"Not this time. If it was another time, maybe, but it's not just the danger. We need to keep an eye at the home base to keep tabs on Dr. Wily, see if he does anything, if he fulfills his plan. You'd be the last line of defense."

Roll clenched her hands in anger, suppressing her rage at being lied to. Her silence though, acknowledged her acquiescence to her brother's will.

Mega Man turned back to Link. "Are you ready?"

"Almost."

"Almost? What else do you need?"

"We need to go back home and change my clothes, of course. What else would I quest in?"

 **Next Chapter: Roll Call**


	49. Roll Call

If Roll could slam the door behind her she would. The sliding mechanism made it difficult to take anger out on inanimate objects. She had just said goodbye to Mega Man and Link, off on another whirlwind adventure. Why was he was he taking a human over her? He hadn't demonstrated any skills that she'd seen. He hadn't any plasma blaster, any robot strength. He was even complaining about his non-existent magic that he subsisted on in order to fight. Something about rods and potions. More weirdness.

Why? When she could fight at the same level as Mega Man. Not just one, but two laser weapons, armor, helmet that could feed her information and statistics. So what if she looked like she was built out of stuff found in the garage... which actually, she was. But she was ready. She was dying to test out her skills, and she hadn't even had that opportunity yet. She so wanted to see what Mega Man always talked about. She wanted to experience that thing he called 'thrill' for herself. When Dr. Light upgraded her, he must've put in an amplified desire program in her A.I. because she was definitely feeling some.

But Mega Man had said his piece, over and over again, and left Roll back here to tend the fort, look after Dr. Light, look out for Dr. Wily, blah, blah, blah. All of it was meaningless. Dr. Light just needed time to heal. He was fine in the hospital, and what would Dr. Wily need him for anyway. Wily wouldn't do anything until he was finished with his plan, or Mega Man stopped him, whichever happened first. And it was usually the latter that would. And Roll was going to have no part of that.

But she did have one important thing that Mega Man told her to do, contact the space station and make sure they were all right. The remote location made it so it might have a chance to prepare a defense if informed early enough. Wily would be hard-pressed to get a robot master up there to terrorize the people and obtain his prize. He had done it before though. If he had access to hundreds of robots, he could definitely build a rocket, or some other space-faring vehicle as a private citizen.

She sat down at the nearest terminal and accessed the communication program, entering NASA/DSMA as her destination. The terminal connected the lines and brought up a menu full of options. With a little navigation she selected the Phoenix Space Station in orbit as her recipient for the call. While it connected, Tango the cat pawed up to her seat at the console. Roll looked down at her. "Hey, Tango. You wanna come up?"

"Mew?" it said in a perfect imitation of a cat.

Roll patted her lap, indicating that she wanted Tango to jump on. The cat sat on her haunches and sprang up onto her knee. Roll closed her legs together, giving a more cohesive platform, and Tango sat down comfortably.

As she waited for the communication to finish up the handshaking protocol she lovingly stroked Tango behind the ears, thinking what a good battle assistant she could have been. "Oh, Tango, what am I gonna do with you?"

"Mreow."

"Do you think Mega Man's ever going to let me fight at his side? Maybe it's just because he's never seen what I can do. I'm not even a hundred percent sure of my own potential myself. I know he's always lamenting about how he has to be the only one to serve justice. But why does he want to bear that burden alone? Why doesn't he understand that he doesn't have to be alone? He's got people here that love him and don't want to see him suffer. I know he can do it, and he knows he can do it, but why not make it easier?"

Tango turned her head to the side and rested it on her paws.

"This Link must be something pretty special if Mega Man wanted him to be his partner. Maybe it's because he has more experience. I just hope he doesn't forget his friends here. I don't want him to turn out like Pr-"

Finally, the screen displayed a green 'connected' dialog, to which Roll acknowledged and observed what looked like the command center for the station, with several other metal computer consoles in the background on an observation deck. A middle-aged man with bright eyes in a NASA/DSMA uniform was leaning forward on the screen, resting one arm on the desk.

"Space Station Phoenix."

"Hello, is this Commander Lexington I'm speaking with?"

"Says so right there." He pointed to the lapel of his shirt which read his last name in block letters.

"Yes, I see," Roll said, not amused at all. "This is Roll at the Dr. Light manor. I'm calling to inquire about your current condition. Have you been keeping tabs at all on the current situation?"

"Not so much, other than Dr. Wily is on the loose again. But, hey, when doesn't that happen, right?"

She gave a faked courtesy laugh. "Right. We believe that Dr. Wily is planning to build some sort of super-intelligent robot, possibly using human brainpower. One of the pieces of equipment that he needs to complete the process is on your station - an inverser."

"No kidding? He wants our inverser? Well, how about that."

Roll arched her eyebrow at the glib manner the commander was taking on. "There haven't been any attempts to breach the station by unauthorized means, have there?"

"Nope."

"Well, I would increase your security to full red alert if you can. Dr. Wily is undoubtedly going to make an attempt to seize the station if he hasn't already done so. As soon as Mega Man is finished taking care of business on Earth, he'll be taking the next available transport up there."

"Well, that's great, but I don't think that'll be really necessary."

"And why's that?"

He spread his arms out and laughed. "Look at us. We're just a science station. We've got sensors and monitors up everywhere. We've got ultra HLE radar, sonar, every tracking system you can think of. If Dr. Wily even sneezes, we'd see it. We've got all the necessary security bots, we've got the trip lasers. We grow our own food. We can subsist for six months without needing resupply from earth. There's no way we wouldn't see him coming from ten light-years away."

"That's great and all, but I really think you should prepare for the worst. Dr. Wily has set his sights on space before," she said, recalling Star Man.

Commander Lexington dismissed her with a foppish wave of his hand. "Don't worry little lady. If Dr. Wily does decide to attack us, you'll be the first to know."

Suddenly, the screen darkened to a bath of infra-red repetitive flashing. The commander's face changed from arrogance to shock as he looked around. Lines of static randomly wiped out the screen.

"Hello? Hello? Commander?" Roll asked.

The commander, now oblivious to her, stood up from his chair, and yelled, "What the hell was that? What's going on?"

Roll's sensitive hearing picked up shrieks and screams in the background, patterned with the unmistakable sound of plasma blasts. Her eyes widened.

"Commander! Get out of there now!" she shouted.

The screen was now half static, she doubted he could hear her. "Wily! Get everyone to shelter!" came an off-screen voice.

"It's too late!" came a voice in the background. "He's taken the station. Everything's gone nuts!"

"Run! Run!"

"Escape pods!"

"You've got- no time- contact-"

Roll practically grabbed the screen. "Come in, Commander!"

"AIEEEEE!"

The screen changed to complete static. Then a message stating the communication was interrupted.

The reality of the situation sunk in quickly to the female robot. Wily already had his hands on the station. He was up there right now, taking it over, and Mega Man wasn't around to do a thing about it. People were dying. And he couldn't do anything cause he wasn't here. He was somewhere else, trying to prevent more people dying. And the only reason people were dying was because he couldn't be in two places at once.

She could do something about it though. She was capable. But no, she couldn't do anything either. Rock said she had to stay here and monitor things. Well, that's what she was doing, dammit, and it wasn't helping anything. She was sitting here watching people die. And she had the ability to do something. Why did Mega Man have to say that? Why was she stuck here?

And then it dawned on her. She didn't need to. She had free will now. She could take matters into her own hands, regardless of orders. If Mega Man was here, he would probably tell her to get up and save those people, stop Dr. Wily before it was too late. She had the will, she had the way. She could do it. This was her opportunity. This was her chance to prove to Mega Man that she was now his equal. That space station needed saving. And boy, were they going to be surprised when she was the one who did it.

"Tango," she commanded with excitement and grandeur in her voice. "Go get my helmet. We're going in."

Tango jumped off her lap, landing soundlessly on the floor, and flopped on her stomach with her paws lazily hanging in the air.

"Tango! I- forget it." She had to keep reminding herself she was not Rush. She was going to have to talk to Dr. Light about adjusting that cat's A.I. a little bit when he got back.

For now, she reopened the communication to NASA/DSMA, but instead selected the ground control. The pick-up was almost immediate.

"NASA/DSMA ground control."

"This is Roll. I need you to schedule an emergency tether transport to Space Station Phoenix."

"How soon?"

"Immediately!"

* * *

Mega Man and Link climbed down from the descended ladder and walked forward, away from the gray VTOL jet. This structure was like nothing Link had ever seen before, but it didn't strike him as being that far removed from a temple. The compound was set around a rectangular perimeter. Occupying most of the right side was a large glass building, but unlike other temples, this one was completely rectangular. Nothing special or indicative of what kind of temple it was. Most shrines had statues, or animal structures to them, meant to guard the gates from intruders. Not here. Just a big glass box that reflected the cloudy light coming down from the sky.

The left half compiled several different structures, some cylindrical and tall, some small and box-like. They looked like they had singular purposes, such as storing or factory processing.

"This is Ultratech," Mega Man said, coming alongside him. "Largest manufacturer of technology in the world. If anyone has a photonic density carrier, it's them."

"So, what? We just go in and ask them if they still have one?"

The doors to the glass compound opened up and people began spraying outward, screaming and flailing their arms in the air. They looked panicked, and with good reason. Bubble bats and other flying robots were attacking them, fluttering over their shoulders and firing laser blasts in the dirt, shrieking bat-like sounds emanating from their vocal synthesizers.

"I think we'll have to do more than that," Mega Man said.

"I knew it wasn't going to be that easy."

One young lady in a business skirt, screaming in terror came closer to them as a round bat, like the ones Link had seen in the tunnel, flexed it's jagged mouth, ready land in her hair and take a bite out. Mega Man aimed his arm cannon and fired, striking the target true and evaporating the enemy in a flash of light.

Mega Man thanked his lucky stars those things didn't have energy shields on. "It's nice to have something explode for a change." He waved his hand to Link. "Let's go."

They shifted through the dispensing people, dodging and weaving in and out stealthily. Mega Man bounced high to avoid them, landing in open areas, and Link took the low road, maneuvering in between the people making it past. As they penetrated the fenced gate, the number of escapees thinned out.

"The density carrier would have to be housed in the reactor tower. There." He pointed to one of the dirty white flat cylinders in the compound. Link nodded and the two of them headed down that way. Enemy robots, both humanoid and abstract, were wandering around the entrance of the tower, apparently guarding it. Mega Man sniped them from a distance with his plasma blaster, easily taking them out with one or two shots.

"These are just small fries," Mega Man said as they ran. "The real meat's inside. As you get closer and closer, they get stronger and stronger."

"I know that story," Link commented. Fighting robots was nothing he wanted to jump into too quickly after his disastrous first encounter. But Mega Man was finishing them off quickly, and Link hadn't even pulled out his shield yet.

The blue robot, having cleared a way, pried the door open with his inhuman strength. Inside, the smell of oil and metal saturated the air. They looked around cautiously, up and down, looking for attackers. A flock of orange flying daggers with large eyes and spinning gyros hovered in.

"Run!" Mega Man said. "Split up, divide them."

Link dodged to the side, making his way to some large piece of equipment. Half the orange bots went after him, pointing their gyros threateningly. Mega Man bounded in the air, firing off half a dozen plasma shots. They all hit true and eliminated the threat.

"Come on, up we go." Mega Man headed off deeper into the heart of the tower and Link followed him. He took hold of a ladder and scooted up it quickly. Link did the same, arriving at a higher platform. With more robots patrolling the area dumbly, Mega Man made short work of them. Several yards later they came across some shallow pits housing turtle bots. The one closest launched grenades into the air. At their apex they sprouted parachutes and floated above the heroes' heads.

"Scatter!" Mega Man commanded.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Link said as he dove away, opposite Mega Man.

The grenades hit the ground and made a minor explosion that harmed nobody. Link unfastened his shield and held it across his arm, ready to defend against the next onslaught. Mega Man jumped across the gap, turned around and fired at the turtle-bot. It absorbed shot after shot, but finally exploded. He turned around and did the same to the next turtle-bot waiting for him, just before it fired off two grenades.

Meanwhile, Link had climbed down the platform and back to Mega Man's side. They traversed down the corridor and back to another ladder, which they promptly climbed up. Link could see they were getting pretty far from the floor, and it was no wonder for all the climbing they'd done so far.

This area had several open pits on a platform. They were jumpable by Link, but it would take all his leg strength. Mega Man bounced into the air over the first pit and an alligator mouth jumped up and bit him in the leg. Mega Man flashed electrically and fell back on the ground at Link's feet.

"Acck," he said. "Need to watch for that."

Mega Man inched forward to the pit and the alligator robot jumped up, clamping its teeth at whatever it could find, which was nothing. Mega Man took the distraction at its best moment and shot the jumping jaws. Link, hiding strategically behind his shield, jumped the gap after Mega Man had cleared the way. Mega Man inched forward again, triggering the alligator's reflex, causing it to attack nothing, and get blown up in the process. They both jumped the gap again, and repeated the process.

They opened a factory door into the next room, suddenly inundated with noise. There were spikes all along the floor of the factory, and the only way across was via the conveyer belts placed at varying heights, and going all sorts of directions.

"Watch your step here," Mega Man said.

"No problem."

Mega Man jumped on first. The textured metal carried the robot off forward speedily, he jumped off at the end of the belt and onto the next one at a higher elevation. Link did the same, except the sudden speed of the conveyer belt took him off his feet and he landed hard on his back.

Mega Man gasped and tried running back towards him, but the tread's direction prevented him from gaining any ground.

Link, fortunately, bolted back up and jumped on at the last second, grabbing it by his hands. The belt helpfully pulled him up the rest of the way. "No problem," Link said.

They ran forward and hopped on the next belt, that was carrying back towards them. Mega Man jumped forward, avoiding the backtracking of the belt. Link, however, couldn't find his footing, running forward desperately, trying to avoid falling into the spiky death. Mega Man grabbed his hand and helped him along.

Suddenly, he saw a hard-hatted mettool heading towards him, being carried steadily on the conveyer, still in its shell. Mega Man jumped over it with ease. "Watch out," he called back.

"For a helmet?" Link said.

The mettool popped up from its yellow helmet, showing its bright childlike eyes and squidlike snout. A welder tool fired a small spark of electricity at Link's boot, giving him a hotfoot.

"Yeowch!" Link hopped up in the air nearly as high as Mega Man reached and landed right next to him. The stationary yellow robot turned around but then fell off the belt.

"That's a mettool," Mega Man said. "They're everywhere. Watch out for those."

The belt they were on now was a longer one that headed into a tunnel. Stomping pillars were placed at intermittent spaces, crushing whatever happened to pass by into paste.

"We need to time this exactly," Mega Man said, walking backwards to counteract the ebb of the tide.

"Can do," Link said, watching the pounding pillars. Timed traps were nothing new to him. The pillar nearest them slammed down, and Mega Man treaded towards it. As soon as it popped up, Mega Man slid under and Link sprinted across, nearly getting his tunic slashed off. The next pillar rose, and they slid under it again. There was only one more, and the pair darted under it easily. They emerged into a new room with a single door.

Link brushed the sweat off his brow. "Easy," Link said. He couldn't believe this was the sort of thing Mega Man had to deal with. Everything was so straightforward, just get from point A to point B, avoid getting smashed. Not a single key, obstructed passage, or wall was blocking his way so far.

Link smiled, "If this is all you have to deal with, I'll switch worlds with you."

Mega Man also smiled, knowing he wasn't serious.

"Where next?" Link asked.

"This door may reveal something. I think it might lead to the geo-plant level."

"Meaning we're getting closer?"

"Meaning we're getting closer, and there are going to be tougher bots down there. Let me go first."

Mega Man hit some keys next the door, which shifted up into the wall. He bounced through the doorway with his arm cannon drawn, darting left and right with it in anticipation of a surprise attack. With a final glance upward he rested his firing arm and said, "I think-"

Mega Man suddenly heard an unusual echo of creaking metal coming from above. The door slammed shut in behind him, followed by the unmistakable sound of locking up, keeping Mega Man and Link apart.

 **Next Chapter: Battlegrounds**


	50. Battlegrounds

"Uh, Mega Man?"

Link padded the silver metal wall, blocking any further access. He knocked on it, expecting some window to slide down and the robot's face to appear.

"Mega Man? You there? Can you hear me?" He pounded even louder on the slab, but it was like trying to damage a pillow. "Mega?"

Okay, this was not good. He was completely separated from Mega Man, and trapped in a little room. He needed some help. "Computer! Locate Mega Man for me and make a communication."

Nothing.

"Computer, respond."

Nothing.

"Computer?"

Okay, now this had just been upgraded to desperate emergency. No Mega Man, no way to contact him, no Computer to tell him what to do, no way out of here, and no way to fight dozens of invulnerable monsters. He couldn't go back the way he came, the direction of the conveyer belt wouldn't allow him to get enough speed to avoid the crushing pillars. Unless that changed at some point he was trapped.

He ran his fingers along the seam of the door, checking for a weakness, or perhaps a failsafe mechanism. That yielded nothing. Then he realized the keypad was still there, but he had no idea what combination Mega Man had put in, and was cursing himself for not being more observant. Above there was no passage, just a ceiling, the same ugly metallic gray as everything else in this forsaken place. Was he gonna starve to death here?

No, no, it was way too early to think about giving up like that. He hadn't exhausted nearly all his options. Of course, what did he do when he was prevented with an inescapable room? He pulled out his handy-dandy door-maker - the bomb.

Yanking out a globe from the knapsack he set it in front of the door. Of course, there weren't a lot of places in this space to hide from an explosion, so it was a bit risky. As soon as he lit the fuse, he ran to the farthest corner of the room, pulled his shield to his back and held his hands over his neck, creating a makeshift shell, the best he could do.

The bomb went off in a red booming blast. Link peeked out from over the top of his shield to see if any damage had been done. As soon as the smoke dissipated he found that not even a scratch was made, just a black jagged scorch mark. Plus the fact that the explosion had ripped the keypad out of the wall, where it was hanging by a single wire. Link cursed his luck and stood up, ready to walk over to the door again. The bomb did nothing but make his life worse, and he was running out of them as well.

Suddenly he tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face. Instantaneously, he looked back for what he had tripped over.

There was some sort of square indentation in the floor, about the width of a person, and a small green light near the bottom. It looked like something like a block should be inserted there, probably some sort of trigger trap or access point.

As he was fingering the light, it switched to blue and part of the floor popped out to show what looked like a handle. Link, not really knowing how else to proceed, wrapped his fingers around it, and the floor made a hissing, vibrating sensation. He pulled the handle up, and the section of the floor gave apart in his hand, revealing a hatch. Link breathed a sigh of relief at this new development, not looking forward to being found as a green-clad skeleton centuries later.

The hatch led to a ladder, somewhere on a floor below, down to nothing recognizable. As he climbed down he tried to think of how he was going to fight the hordes of robots no doubt gunning for him. Short of a lot of hiding, which he was not keen on, he wasn't sure how he could do it. Well, he was able to incapacitate the Mega Man clone in the mining tunnel, but that was just for a second and he was soundly whipped after that. Plus that was utilizing a bomb, and he had to conserve those now. Unfortunately, his only trump card was in scant supply here.

He reached the bottom floor and found himself in a room full of unrecognizable equipment, and dangerous pits scattered about. He foresaw a quick death for himself if he was fighting and happened to stumble backwards into oblivion.

But so far, nothing was happening. His hand was cautiously on the hilt of his sword, ready to spring it forth if necessary. His eyes darted around in all directions.

As he predicted, he heard a mechanical whine coming from above. Two bubble bats were fluttering down from the rafters and exercising they're jaws. Link was expecting some heavy fire and held up his shield to his face, but they did not appear to be able to shoot plasma blasts.

The Hylian arched his arm back and pulled out his bow and an arrow, hoping to pick off a few of them before they got too close. With swift precision he fired at the leading attacker. The arrow zinged through the air and fluttered to the ground like a feather after undisruptively hitting the black exterior of the bat.

"Not good," Link said. Maybe if he still had silver arrows, but... no, not time for retrospect. Maybe a boomerang. No, same effect. Didn't he have anything? The hookshot? That would just draw them up to him. Was this the best he could do?

On impulse, he pulled out his ice rod. "Oh, baby, if there was ever a time for this to work, it's now." He extended his reach, pointed it at the ever-threatening group, and fired. The blue crystal at the end remained defunct.

"Urrk!" Link dove for the ground as the flock swooped down, trying to bite his head off. They passed by and rotated to make a return pass. Link used his failsafe plan.

He ran like the dickens.

He knew the bats were hot on his trail, and he did his best to stay away from them. Their airborne nature was the only thing letting him gain any ground on not being torn to shreds. He skidded around a large machine in the middle of the room and his pursuers kept right on after him. They would never get tired like he would. They would never need to get water or take a break. He couldn't taunt them or anger them into making a mistake. So he ran. Now he really saw first hand why it was so necessary to have robots fight robots.

He felt one nearly take off his hat, and he burst with speed in order to try and make it out of their range. But they were going to catch up eventually. Luckily, he saw an alcove hidden away in the machine and dove for it. Gripping the metal in his hands he pulled himself inside, cuddling into a square compartment deep in the heart of whatever this thing was. The bat-bots apparently couldn't or wouldn't follow him in here.

Link took the split moment to make a reality check of what was going on. Now he had a chance to regroup. He couldn't escape right now, being where he was. The best thing he could do was make a surprise attack. He looked up and saw the perfect opportunity to do that.

The top of this compartment was open, so he climbed out and withdrew his sword. The two bats were hovering around the machine at ground level, patrolling where they expected Link to come out. Time for him to take advantage. Link held his sword downward and leapt off the machine.

"Hiyaaaaa!" He headed with precision at the robot on the left and drove his sword deep down into its spherical body. The blade skewered through, screeching of metal on metal. Sparks and oily fluid flowed out like robot blood as the motor functions ceased. Link tumbled to the side as the bat did its best to fight back, but it was moot, as the sword fell on its side with a clang and the bat stopped flapping its wings.

The other foe, oblivious of his brother's demise, flew at Link. Reacting quickly, he grabbed the sword up of the floor. But he was nearly pulled to the ground by it. His blade was still nearly hilt deep in the heavy broken shell. As he ran Link tried to shake off the bat, but it was stuck tight, and he couldn't wave it fast enough with what felt like a iron ball on its end. With a little distance he tried to shove it off with his foot, but he didn't have the strength. And that bat was closing in on him.

Cursing, he dropped the sword and headed to a nearby ladder leading a up to a tower above the machine. The bat was right under Link's feet, and ready to climb up and hit him that way. But Link was having any of that. No more running for him. He turned around on the ladder and jumped off, onto the bat, screaming a ferocious battle cry.

The confused robot turned around as Link collapsed on him. Little did he know of the flying strength of these bats. The robot continued flying higher and Link nearly tumbled to the ground. He managed to get a grip on each of the bat's wings, and hung down off the ground like he was holding a flying bicycle.

The robot attempted to fly higher, as Link's eyes widened from the distance between him and the floor. He gripped on tighter, trying to shift his center of gravity up so the strain on his arms wasn't so great. The bat wriggled and wiggled as best it could, but Link held on for dear life.

Link pulled on one of the wings, and the flier spun around in the direction Link wanted him to go, but that wasn't stopping the attempts to try and fight him off. Link swung his legs back and forth, adding inertia to his own will of direction. They were headed straight for a wall at a rapid pace, diving like a dropping bomb.

Link managed to bring his knees up to his stomach, tucking himself in, and pressed the soles of his boots against the helpless robot's back. Just as they were about to impact against the wall, Link pushed away in a backflip, shoving the robot further into the wall in a burst of speed and throwing Link away from the ensuing explosion.

Link landed on his feet, with a hand gripping the floor, watching the black shrapnel raining down from the smoke cloud.

"Phew," Link sighed with relief. He'd rarely had a more difficult fight in his life, with the exception of some temple guardians and Ganondorf's minions. Those bats must've been some pretty advanced robots to give him such trouble.

He brushed himself off and headed to where he dropped his sword. With a little might, now that he was no longer under the desperation of being pursued, he yanked his blade out by pressing his foot on the bat. It slid out with a horrible screech, and he put it back in his scabbard. With this breath he looked around the room. The nearest doorway out was a wide gate covered in a ribbed metal sheet. It looked like the hangar, or a door to a stable.

As soon as he approached it, the door rolled back into the ceiling, shifting off a section at a time. Link walked under it and into a darkened hallway. No robots in here either, just another door at the end of the way. He couldn't really think of what purpose this hallway served, it seemed rather out of place. The door behind him shut, one section at a time. Finding no reason not to go forward, he headed to the next door. It shifted up and deposited him into a large empty room.

 **Next Chapter: Robot Fighting Time**


	51. Robot Fighting Time

Mega Man's eyes filled with darkness as the entryway door slid back behind him, palling him in shadow, section by section. This was a passageway he had become all too familiar with - a long dark hallway, with only one locked way in and one locked way out. And there was only one, invariable thing waiting for him at the end of the hall. He usually knew who was waiting for him behind it.

When he got separated from Link, he'd tried everything to get back to him. He'd tried pushing his way, finding alternate routes, failsafing the lock, setting up an interface with the computer, none of it worked. He had no idea if Link was dead or alive by this point, but he imagined he was still trapped in that room, waiting for release. Thinking Link would be safe as long as he stayed there, he pressed on. He hadn't meant to come so far into the factory as to make contact with its boss, but it was the only available route to him. As soon as Mega Man was done disinfecting the plant from the rebel robots, and its associated master, he would be able to go back and fetch his Hylian friend. He was just going to have to sit tight until then.

Mega Man had never showed hesitation when entering the room of a robot master, and showed even less now. The faster he took care of this, the better. How exactly he was going to do that was beyond him. He had no master weapons and a substandard arm cannon with no charge. The odds of him winning were slim and none.

The door in front of him peeled up, section by section, flooding the passageway with light from some unknown source, revealing the large, square, empty room Mega Man had been expecting. The metallic sheen of the rest of the factory gleamed off the walls. This was where he always found the heart of the problem. In a metal box, housing a dangerous enemy.

As the door slid behind him, Mega Man slowly scanned the perimeter of the room for the robot master he knew had to be watching him. Sometimes they dropped down from the ceiling, sometimes they came out of the shrouding darkness, sometimes they teleported in. But there always was one. "Come out already. I know you're there," he said grimly.

"No patience, Rock. Your humanity lessens each time you take on our forces."

"Don't call me that. My name is Mega Man." He couldn't recognize the voice, but it was being piped in from some other location.

"Hmph, Dr. Wily calls you 'Rock', not 'Mega Man'. He says that there's nothing 'mega' about you. Of course, there are a few other choice items he calls you."

A red blur dropped down from above at the other end of the room, surprising Mega Man, though he did not show it. The blur landed on his feet and uncurled, stretching to his full form. His body looked similar to Mega Man's design, except his color scheme was red & black, and his crimson helmet covered all his head except for a slit in the middle, with a red crescent crest scowling his eyes at the forehead.

"Magnet Man." Mega Man announced. "Of course, only you would be able to resist the magneton waves from a photonic density carrier without getting your pathways scrambled."

"Well, I had a little help," he shrugged with fake humility. "But I'm glad you came to me first. I'll be the first robot to ever defeat you one on one."

"What makes you so certain of that? I took you on once, and annihilated you. You're just a carbon copy of an inferior robot past its time."

"Ah, ah," he waggled his finger, with one hand on his hip, "A carbon copy of an inferior robot with an impenetrable energy shield."

Damn, Mega Man had forgotten about that part. So it no longer mattered if his arm cannon was substandard and empty, it was useless anyway.

"I don't know how you expect to defeat me," Magnet Man said. "This will be Dr. Wily's finest hour."

"Sorry, Magnet Man. Don't think I'll fold that quickly. I'm made of sterner stuff than that."

"Your one weapon is useless," Magnet Man said incredulously. "What do you expect to do?"

"Let's find out." Mega Man backed up, putting weight on his back leg and readying his arm cannon.

"Very well." Magnet Man scowled and bounded into the air like a jolt of lightning. Mega Man knew Magnet Man couldn't jump that far that fast, he was propelling himself up using the magnetics of the metal in the room. Just when it looked like he was going to reach the ceiling he stopped in mid air and fired two magnet missiles out of his arm.

Mega Man's eyes widened as they came crashing down towards him at super speeds, large magnets being propelled by detonation missiles. He twisted his body over, lifting his feet up off the ground as if he was going over a high bar. One zipped just over him and the other grazed his back. He could feel the zinging red heat of the propulsion jet brush against his armor.

Instinctively he fired off three shots from his plasma cannon. They streamed towards Magnet Man and hit true, but hit an energy forcefield an inch before they would have crashed into his torso. That light shield was definitely still in place.

"Anything else you want to try?" Magnet Man laughed as he came down. "Maybe I can find you some rocks to throw."

"Once again, your magnetic personality shines through." He fired three shots in rapid succession, aiming precisely for the torso. Magnet Man stood there and absorbed them. Even a concentrated blast couldn't get through. Magnet Man jumped over as Mega Man dodged his furious attacks. He had to try and think of some other way of killing him. Last time, Magnet Man had proven vulnerable to both the shadow blade and the spark shot, but he had neither of those weapons. Fantastic.

The red robot fired a series of three point blank missiles, jolting Mega Man back against the wall, his power supply reduced severely. "You're making this far too easy, Rock. You may not be a man, but you can at least die like one."

He fired another magnet missile, which Mega Man rolled along the floor to avoid before it became attracted to the wall and exploded. This was getting him nowhere fast. He couldn't avoid those homing attacks forever, and he had no offensive maneuvers. He couldn't make this a long drawn out battle, he had to make Magnet Man's defeat hard and fast.

"Come back here." Magnet Man flexed his arms and activated his Magnet Draw. Waves of air pulsated around him and the walls of the room shook, as if they were going to unseal.

Mega Man knew what was coming and tried to get up, but Wily's robot was too fast for him. He lost his balance and collapsed on his stomach. Immediately, his body was dragged along the ground, being pulled into the magnetic waves. Mega Man dug his fingers into the metal floor, trying to find something to grasp but falling. Small indentations turned into lines in the metal plating as he was pulled towards Magnet Man's harmful body. Peelings of scrap metal started curling up from his clutching. He was never going to win at this rate. This was what Link was supposed to be for. What would he do in this situation? Close combat was his specialty. Maybe he would pull out one of his tools like the hookshot or...

Magnet Man gave one final pull to his Magnet Draw and cut it off. Mega Man's tensioned body relaxed and he scrambled to his feet to face his enemy. He hoped this would work.

The red robot bounded again in the air and fired two missiles. Mega Man saw them coming straight down to him and honed his eyes. This had to be pinhole precise. He ducked under the first one just as it was about to make his head explode. He leaned back to the left and plucked the second one out of the air like a butterfly just as it soared by. He caught it by the magnetic end and grasped it firmly, struggling to keep it from propelling away.

Magnet Man, bewildered, dropped back to the ground as Mega Man hid the missile behind him and disabled the rocket with his tool-using skills. Moving at blurring speeds, he disassembled the missile part away from the magnet, leaving the horseshoe shape and explosive separate. Then he bent the horseshoe a bit, pulling the ends apart from each other so it was more of a 'V' shape than a 'U'.

"What in the world was that?" the enemy asked.

"This!"

Mega Man whipped around and slung the magnet in a sweeping motion with his arm. The V-shaped magnet hovered in the air like a boomerang and flew towards Magnet Man's head. It nearly knocked his neck off his shoulders, then it flew back into Mega Man. He bounded up, caught it and threw again in one smooth motion. Before Magnet Man had time to react and realize what was going on, the boomerang smacked him again, up under the chin, then soared away. Mega Man caught it and threw again.

This time Magnet Man caught it in mid-air and smirked. His smirk only lasted a fifth of a second though, as Mega Man dashed up and gave him a robot uppercut, then two hard hook punches to the ribs. Mega Man wailed on his metal casing mercilessly, and the physically weaker Magnet Man rebounded from each blow, though it had little effect on his power levels. He could sit there and take punches all day, but the embarrassment of being caught off guard was too much. He reversed the polarity on his magnet draw and propelled Mega Man outward. As if he was hit himself, Mega Man flew away into the air and landed in a heap halfway across the room.

Magnet Man strided towards his foe. "You insolent little fool! Now you die!"

Mega Man collected himself and stood up. "Could you wait about five more seconds?"

"Five-?" He saw Mega Man mouthing a countdown. Four. Three.

Magnet Man felt a bump under his chest plate near his core reactor. Something flashing, ticking. Like the detonator to one of his missiles.

Just as he grabbed it, he saw Mega Man mouth 'zero'. His eyes widened and the explosive went off, causing a chain reaction in his power source and blasting Magnet Man apart in a shower of sparks and energy crystals, along with metal scraps.

Mega Man covered his eyes from the short blast. As usual, there was nothing recognizable left but a few shards of red armor. He searched through the junk circuitry for a certain recognizable translucent red board. As soon as he found it, surrounded by frayed wires and singed ends, he picked it up and admired it.

"One for me. None for you," he said as he opened his arm cannon and inserted the circuit board into one of his eight empty slots.

* * *

The hissing noise of pressurized air accompanied Roll as she emerged into the space station side of the airlock, as if signaling the beginning of the action. She'd arrived at an intersection of gray metal hallways, at which a large computer terminal stood. No sign of enemy robots or humans so far. She held her pistol up into the air, close to her body, ready for action.

The main system of the station was apparently operational. At least enough that she didn't need to hack into it to let herself in. She thought that might have been a bit unusual, expecting robots to disable all means of the humans getting any help up here. In fact, there were no blaring red klaxons sounding, indicating a red alert. Perhaps it had been downgraded. Maybe there was no robot invasion, and Roll had just made a mistake.

Or perhaps not. Until the situation was determined, she had to be ready for battle. She hit the button on her helmet to bring up her visor and it slid in front of her eyes, bathing everything in a green hue. Data about the environment began flooding the corners of her field of vision.

She stepped onto the echoing metal grating and approached the computer terminal ahead of her. The green and black interface spoke of futuristic computer technology, the finest possible for a space station of this caliber. The first thing she had to do was discover her environment. She brought up a map of the station and cross-referenced it with environment variables. Everything looked to be in order. The air supply and life support systems were still functioning at 100. Not that she needed them, but that told her humans could still be alive, if some had escaped or went into hiding. Gravity was still on at 1G, equivalent to Earth. Inertial dampeners fine. No hull breaches, no signs of forced entry. So far, except for the eerie emptiness, she couldn't tell there had been an attack by Dr. Wily at all. She accessed the communications console and opened hailing frequencies.

No one picked up, after waiting a full five minutes. She then tried a scan for life signs. The computer spit back that the scanner was not functional. Interesting. Graphic sensor? Also broken. She held out hopes that the crew was still alive and input a query about the status of what Wily wanted in the first place, the inverser.

The computer replied that it had no data on the inverser, nor could it look for it. This was becoming quite the mystery, she thought as she rubbed her forehead. On a whim, she consulted the command log of changes to the system since Wily's alleged attack. A human would never have been able to analyze the numberless lines that appeared on the screen, but Roll read at a fast pace. Something about the geo-targeting orbit combined with the thruster log conflicted badly. Coalescing the data, she was able to bring up a graphic representation of the orbit of the space station.

And it told her it had broken orbit, and would be inescapably plummet to Earth in a matter of hours.

Time was of the essence now, but she retained her confidence that she could do it. No problem. There was still time to change the orbit of the station back to normal. She studied the map and found the quickest route up to the command center at the top of the station, opposite where she currently was. The most direct route was up and through, although she had no way of knowing if robots had blocked off or were guarding any sections she needed access to. If they were, she'd just have to engage in battle. No problem. A simple 'sweep and destroy' for any enemy robots, and assist any humans on the way. A mission even a rookie marine could handle, which she certainly was better than.

She turned away from the computer and headed into the nearest elevator. It took her up several floors at her command, about halfway up through the station. When the doors opened, she emerged with her pistol ready, drawing it back and forth for any signs of enemies. Nothing. She cautiously treaded down the hall and was midway through when a yellow robot with large, comical white eyes and a spring bottom suddenly turned a corner and bounced toward her.

Instantly, vital statistics flooded her visor, pointing out the robot's composition, power source, energy output, strong points, and weak points. With just the tiniest utterance of a shriek of surprise she held out her pistol and fired in a flash. The purple laser beam hit the mark and evaporated the robot in a yellow implosion.

 _Ha,_ Roll thought, _that wasn't hard at all. My first Wily robot killed. Down in one shot. I wonder if they're all that easy._

Roll, keeping her eyes double peeled for other spring-loaded robots, made her way down the corridor, and opened the door.

 _That was no problem at all,_ she kept thinking to herself. _That should prove I'm capable of anything Rock is. Boy, if he could have seen that he'd have no choice but to make me his partner. We'd complement each other so well. He's got the experience, and I've got the skill._

The door opened to a large circular room, the center walled off. This was the hub of the station, and its very center, where it led off to the spokes of the station's facilities. So far, no robots here either. She moved around the large curving hallway, making her way to her destination, still beaming.

 _We could be the dynamic duo,_ she continued thinking, _fighting crime and evil all over the world. He'd no longer have to be the lone wolf. He could have back-up. Double the fighting power. They could call us the Mega Squad. They-_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden thunderous boom that shook the floor, nearly toppling her. She dashed her head side to side to try and find its source. Then she heard a rush of air behind her and quickly turned around.

She was immediately smacked supine on the floor by some yellow blur that had collided with her face. The impact knocked her silly, distorting the visor on her head. She groaned to pull herself up and adjusted her eyeshade. Another yellow object zoomed toward her. She fell back against the floor with her arms at her sides, trying to become as flat as possible, and the boulder rushed over her head. Several other yellow spheres flew over her like a flock of birds.

After they passed, she uprighted herself, and turned to see where they were going. They disappeared around the curve of the roundabout, and Roll leapt up and followed them around the corner.

The yellow globules were collecting into a bigger pile around a mound of gelatinous yellow goo, growing bigger and bigger with each chunk of mass absorbed. Then it sprouted legs, pushing itself off the ground, and extended two thick arms out of its corpulent body. And one glowing red eye in the center.

 **Next Chapter: The Weakest Link**


	52. The Weakest Link

Roll's two eyes stared into the one large red eye of the monster before her - the yellow devil. Also known as the cyclops bot, or rock monster. Luckily, she had heard about him before. As one of Dr. Wily's more ingenious creations, Rock had fought it, and an improved version, in two adventures previous. From listening to his retelling, she knew that this robot had an impenetrable exterior made of liquifiable litanium, and a single weak point - its eye. Her visor was describing the same information to her right now. This robot looked like the first version, with a slightly darker golden hue and dark crystalline eye looking down at her.

Calculating her distance from the beastly robot, Roll took out one of her pistols and shot straight at the eye. With only a slight movement, the robot bent its head down and the shot did nothing but sparkle away on its forehead. In retaliation it pulled back its beefy arm and backhanded Roll into the wall. The quick and strong blow made her feel like she was a fly that just got flicked away, slamming her spread-eagle on the metal slab. Being a robot she felt no pain, but her artificial intelligence made her react with an appropriate facial expression.

 _He's fast for a big guy,_ she thought as she slid down the wall. Just as she was about to collect herself and stand up the yellow devil grabbed her leg with two meaty fingers, swung her upside down and flung her away like a sack of potatoes.

"Whooooa!" Roll screamed as she flew through the air and skidded along the smooth floor. "All right, I'm getting mad now."

Away from the robot's range, she pulled out her twin pistols like a trained sharpshooter and held them in front of her. "Eat laser!"

She fired shot after shot, using her target enhancement in her visor, alternating shots between each pistol. The purple lasers popped around the cyclops' eye socket, but stopped at the litanium hide, never hitting the mark.

She momentarily relaxed her guns. "Damn, that eye's harder to hit than it looks," she said to herself. With no other recourse, she continued pummeling, backing away as the slow moving yellow devil moved toward her.

It reared back a giant fist and slammed it into the ground. Earth-shaking tremors rebounded through out the station. The floor seemed to undulate like ocean waves, toppling Roll off her feet and onto her back. Disoriented, she nearly dropped her pistols, and had to reset her balance calibration. "Unh, Rock never told me he could do that."

The monster walked forward around the curving corridor, heading towards her with arms raised, ready to grab.

"I think Wily's been doing some upgrades," she sneered and pulled up her gun again, now that he was in better range.

Still a fair distance away, the robot dropped its arms and thrust his fist out at Roll. The fist turned into a solid chunk of litanium and smashed through Roll's face. Her head flung back, nearly knocked off her shoulders. As the female robot reacted, the yellow devil's body continued disintegrating into chunks, peeling off at the arm, and flying through the air one after the other at Roll, and smashing into her body. Roll took each blow, swaying back and forth, whichever way she was hit, at the legs, the torso, the stomach, the arms, the head. The pieces of the yellow devil landed behind her, re-fusing together into its full body again.

Roll was knocked silly from the blows, highly disoriented and hurting. Knowing the robot was behind her, she ran forward, out of its range. If she were feeling better, she would have uttered a snarky quip at the foe, but now she was just concentrating on surviving. Rock had said the yellow devil was one of his more difficult fights, but Roll had never imagined anything as hard as this. Her power levels were depleting, her armor was getting chewed up. She looked back at the cyclops, who was starting to move towards her again. This called for desperate tactics.

Moving as fast as her pathways would allow her, she called Tango up out of her system. A green cat teleported down in front of her, sitting on her hind legs, and staring up at the monster.

"Go, Tango!" she yelled out.

The cat grew a ferocious expression, as ferocious as a housecat could muster, sloping out her back and bringing herself to the ground. It made a guttural growl/hiss at the enemy, then hopped into the air and tucked itself into a ball. The shingles of metal on her back splayed outward and the cat sped forward like a buzzsaw off its hinge. At once, she took off from the ground, rocketing around the room, bouncing off the walls and into the giant beast. Tango buzzed all around it, rebounding off its litanium armor only to come back down, with absolutely no effect. The cyclops slowly weaved around, trying to swat at the speedy thorned ball attacking him, but he was too slow.

"Aim for the eye! The eye!" Roll stressed, but the cat was already in such a frenzy it could pay her no attention. Tango's attack chip couldn't hit the yellow devil precisely enough to target the eye specifically. She was meant for melee situations. Roll called her back before her energy ran out and she was completely useless.

The annoyance gone, the yellow devil continued its approach. Roll tried firing her guns again, as the robot's red eye flashed and fired a lightning bolt down at her. Not expecting a ranged attack, Roll stood stupidly in place as the heavy laser shot her in the chest. She absorbed every bit of charge, sparks flashing from her body as she jittered backwards, grimacing in pain. Her options were limited. Tango was useless. She hadn't made a successful hit to the eye yet. And her enemy seemed to be pulling one trick after another at her.

She dropped to one knee, barely able to hold the pistol in her hand, breathing heavily. "This is gonna be tough," she muttered to herself.

* * *

"Hello? Hello?" Link's voice echoed in the square room. "Anyone here?" he called out. Great. A dead end. He was really lost now. That hallway he went through looked important, but apparently, all it led to was an empty room. What did they use this space for anyway? Storage? There wasn't a single thing in here, just a four distant walls, and a high ceiling with scaffolding and pipes with some sort of orange liquid being piped through. Link could see it through glass windows in the pipes. It looked like thin lava, but Link had no idea why anyone would make an irrigation system for lava, nor why they'd want to look at it through windows in the pipes, _nor_ how they could make glass or pipes that weren't melted by the lava.

Anyway, there was nothing in here that Link needed or wanted, most of which was an exit. As soon as he started to turn to the door, a body dropped down from above and landed on its feet precisely. Link was startled but took no action. He recognized it as a robot, from the gleam of its metal skin. When it stood straight up, he saw that its body was similarly shaped to Mega Man's, but its armor was a darker blue & black. He wore a strange helmet with a giant razor-sharp metal star on its forehead and tapering to a point in the back like a blue jay.

"Human," it snidely said in a deep mysterious voice. "How did a human get in here? No human should have ever made it past the guardians."

"Actually, I'm Hylian," Link smirked.

"I only know creatures of the flesh," he responded. He made his hands into tight little balls and gently placed one into the other, torqueing them.

At that instant, Link knew he was talking to a malevolent robot. It must have been one of the robot masters Mega Man spoke of - special lieutenants of Dr. Wily who guarded the buildings he took over.

"Who are you?" Link asked.

"I am Shadow Man," the robot said. "What is your business here?"

"We're searching for the photon... something. The thing here that Wily wants. We need to keep it out of Wily's hands before he can finish his plan."

"Who is 'we'."

"Mega Man and I."

"Then he is coming," Shadow Man said with grim tone.

"And you mean to kill him?" Link asked with the same tone.

"I do."

"I'm afraid I can't have that."

Link reached behind his back and slowly pulled off his sword and shield. Then he held them at the ready, spinning his sword with his wrist once to show his prowess. Shadow Man bore absolutely no reaction to Link's determined, threatening expression. He knew the effect the sword would have on his hide was nil. But Link was trying to appear that he had the upper hand, that he knew something the robot didn't. "I'm not letting you harm Mega Man," the Hylian said.

"Then I'll just practice on you!" Shadow Man yelled, baring his teeth. He grabbed the star off the top of his head and plucked it off, then flung it at Link like a boomerang. Link reflexively picked up his shield and held it over his face. Two of the sharp blades embedded in the iron metal, points poking through the other side. The third ripped horizontally through the bottom corner of the coat of arms, shredding off a chunk which clattered to the floor. Shadow Man generated another through his weapon system and threw three more rapidly. The Hylian used his guard to catch the first one, then dropped his shield, seeing its uselessness and used his sword to knock away the last two to the left and right.

Shadow Man picked out another shuriken and held it tightly as if it were a hilted weapon. He hopped over like a frog, dragging his feet. His altitude was not as high as Mega Man could jump, but he was gaining significant ground. As soon as he saw the robot heading for him with that razor-sharp blade, Link grabbed his hookshot out of his bag and fired at the ceiling. The grappling hook sailed up and fastened to a grated piece of scaffolding. He released the trigger and the chain pulled him up just as Shadow Man sliced forward.

The robot turned and looked up at Link hanging from the rafters like a bat. He threw the blade he was holding and Link dodged it, swinging to the side as it embedded itself in the metal. Link thought he could stay up her for a while, since the robot couldn't jump that high.

"Interesting fighting style," Shadow Man commented. "But I have no qualms about killing you. I follow none of the humans' laws."

He brought out two shadow blades, holding one in each hand, then threw them parallel, spinning in the air. The blades sliced through the section of grating the hookshot was attached to, separating it. No longer attached to anything, Link yelled in fear as he fell away and collapsed on the ground, rolling from his feet to his back.

Shadow Man grabbed the front of his tunic and held him up as if he weighed nothing. "Worthless sack of flesh." The robot punched him dead in the face with the cross of his free hand. It felt like a ramming metal hammer pounding on his jaw. This was one of the worst pains Link had ever felt. Wily's robot backhanded him with the same arm, knocking Link's head the other way. Then punched him in the stomach, and it took everything Link had to keep his stomach contents inside, let alone his actual stomach.

"So delicate," the robot muttered. "Even the slightest touch leaves a mark for all to see how damaged you are."

As Link breathed moaning gasps for breath, sounding like a stuck pig, Shadow Man grabbed the star from the top of his head and slashed downward lightly across Link's arm. Between wheezes, Link gritted his teeth in utter pain and grabbed the wound. Rivulets of blood ran down the hairs of his arm.

The Hylian knew this battle wasn't going to last long at this rate. He had to escape Shadow Man's grasp. Reaching behind him with his numbing arm, he managed to pull a bomb out of his sack, the only weapon that had proven at all effective against robots. Just as he pulled the fuse to light it, the robot whisked it out of his hands before he could blink.

"What's this?" Shadow Man said, holding the hissing globe in front of Link's swelling eye, as if he was disciplining the human. "What did you expect to accomplish with this? This would do far more damage to you than it would to me. It would barely scratch my exterior and render you lifeless. I'm not finished teaching you your lesson yet." He tossed the bomb behind him casually and it blew up on the other side of the room. "Firecrackers have no use here," he said, commenting about the weak explosion.

Shadow Man slapped him across the face with an open hand, leaving Link with the cutting sensation as if he'd been stung by a thousand bees.

"Fragile human." He slapped Link again. "Every action I make causes an unerasable mark. The more damage I do, the easier it is to cause it." He adjusted his shadow blade and ripped Link a short but deep cut across his cheek. Blood dribbled out of the scar. "Your skin is no thicker than a wire."

He lifted Link up higher and threw him overhead across the room. Link sailed through the air and barely twisted in time to avoid crashing headfirst into the wall like a missile. He ended up slamming his back against the hard metal and sliding down to the floor. Shadow Man stood in the middle of the room and slowly walked toward him, putting purpose behind each step.

"This is but a fraction of my true strength. I could flay the skin from your muscles, snap every limb like a twig. I am done with you. You are not the challenge you made yourself out to be." He slowly took the shadow blade off his forehead and approached. "I am going score your belly across the middle, so that your slippery organs will spill out. You will be able to hold them before you die."

Link peeked out from his blurry vision. His body ached all over, and his cuts hurt excruciatingly, like they were engineered to cause the most pain possible. But he hadn't lost all hope. He remembered what Mega Man had said. Every enemy could be defeated, even if he was just a fragile human. While the robot described the various ways he was going to perish, he was slowly reaching for his hookshot and putting it on his hand. He hadn't come this far to lose to a minion robot. He was banking all his hope on this one shot. He had to be precise. This was going to be tricky.

As soon as Shadow Man picked his foot up off the ground again, Link whipped his arm holding his hookshot out in front and fired. The spring-loaded grappling hook shot forward and embedded itself into the robots torso, latching under his chest plate. Shadow Man stood there with his hands on his hips, mildly interested to see Link to do something with this, daring him. Link couldn't pull the robot towards him with his weight, as he planned, so he let go of the trigger and held on tight. The grapple chain wound back up and Link flew towards Shadow Man.

The Hylian brought out his sword and concentrated the power therein, focusing all his emotions into the blade, energizing it with power and life. As he drew closer to Shadow Man, in that split second he had when the robot realized what was happening, he swung his sword in a horizontal arc, using the power of his spinning sword slash, shouting a battle cry.

Link didn't just stop at one spin, he let go of the hookshot and spun and spun like a ferocious tornado, slicing his blade through the air like a rotor, using every last ounce of strength he had left. The blade cut through Shadow Man's torso over and over again. After three or four spins, both the resistance of the metal and the dizziness overwhelmed Link and he collapsed to one knee, panting heavily.

While the fatigued Link kneeled before him, Shadow Man stood there, staring off into space with narrow pupils, stunned. He tried utter sounds, but only guttural sputtering came from his mouth. The top of his chest began sliding off the bottom of his body and fell backwards onto the floor, exposing the numerous wires and gears inside his body. The legs buckled to their knees, and fell to the side.

Link, in a hazy state from his last ditch effort, barely noticed what had happened. The pain in his body was beating as fast as his heart, overtaking his mind. The agony was numbing his thought process and he suddenly felt very sleepy. Unable to support his weight on his sword he sluggishly tipped to the side and collapsed into a fetal position.

He felt a cool darkness shrouding him from the hot lights and just before he lost consciousness he swore he heard a whistle, like his flute. A sad, bluesy whistle.

 **Next Chapter: The Wild Card**


	53. The Wild Card

The first thing he felt was a natural, warm, filling sensation on his face. Then a cool moist breeze. Link weakly opened his eyes. As soon as he could process his surroundings, he realized he was sitting on a ledge overlooking a wide river, cutting through a range of green mountains. The sun was rising. Or possibly setting, Link wasn't sure how long he'd been out. The colors of the sky were magically splayed into a watercolor canvas of blues, reds, and oranges. For a wonderful fleeting flash, he thought he was back in Hyrule.

The moment he felt the ledge he was sitting on, his brief reverie was done in. He was apparently outside a large building, as big as an amphitheater, on the bank of the rushing blue river below. He was secure enough on the ledge that he had no fear of falling, and he wasn't scared of heights anyway. The setting was too beautiful to be scared.

That's right. He'd just been in a fight. He brought his hand up to his cheek to feel his wound. A hollow remnant of pain resonated in his cheek as he touched it. The wound was gone. Not even a scar. Completely clean.

"Stupid human. Trying to take on a robot master."

Link turned to the left, to the speaker. A robot colored in red and gray was standing on the ledge beside him, apparently oblivious to the danger. He had the same design as Mega Man, closer than Shadow Man had been, but his red helmet had a visor that covered his eyes in blackness. And he had an odd yellow scarf around his neck, and held a white body-length shield at his back.

"Who are you?"

"My name's... ah, just call me Protoman." He waved his hand dismissively after some thought.

"Are you another one?" Link put his hand on the hilt of his sword, glowering at the potential foe.

"Relax. I'm a friend. Here." He handed him a glass of ionized water and looked at Link's apparel. "You trying out for the LARP guild?"

Link, suddenly realizing he was parched, ignored the question and took the glass without asking what it was and downed it.

"Did you heal my wounds?" Link asked.

Protoman produced a small white stick in his hand and tossed it in the air. "The curative spanner really does wonders to repair cells, doesn't it? You weren't that bad off anyway. Just a few cuts and some broken ribs."

 _Broken ribs?_ Link thought. _That would take weeks to heal in Hyrule._

The robot continued, "I didn't mind using it. You looked like you deserved it, after that battle." He put the device back in under his armor and looked out unto the landscape, with his scarf waving in the wind. "So you took on Shadow Man and won. You must have something special."

Link looked down at his blue and gold scabbard. His sword was made of nothing special. It was custom-made for him, deserving since he was the hero of Hyrule, and based on the design of the Master Sword he'd become so familiar with, but it was nowhere near the toughness of the material that robots were made of. It was barely enough to puncture through a robot bat. The way he won was the spinning slash maneuver, which was beyond verbal explanation. It was a combination of magic, focus, and strength. That in itself was unusual. Magic wasn't supposed to exist in this world. So how did he execute the maneuver so successfully?

"What's your secret?" the robot asked.

"I don't... really know. I just fought as hard as I could." He looked up at the mysterious robot. He didn't want to mention anything about magic or Hyrule to this intimidating fellow. "It's a long story."

"Hmph," Protoman said. "Well, if you hope to defeat any more robot masters, I'd get something a little better than that sword and shield. The only reason you were able to defeat Shadow Man is his vulnerability to spinning attacks. But a sword won't be able to cut through Gemini Man's crystal armor."

"When I find Mega Man again, then we'll be able to take the rest of Wily's robots. Two heads are better than one."

"Yes, I watched that. It seems he did all the fighting while you were the cheerleader. As soon as you were separated, you were helpless as a kitten. I don't know you survived. Meanwhile Roll is dying to show you her battle prowess, and Mega Man just makes her sit at home. She's far more capable than you are. I don't get why he picked you and not her."

"Those robot masters have that energy shield that makes plasma shots useless. I was supposed to help him with the physical aspect of fighting. We're partners. We've been through a lot together."

"Hm," he smirked.

"You know, you look a lot like Mega Man, except for the color."

"I'm his brother."

Link's eyes widened, and he nearly fell off the ledge. He knew Mega Man had Roll, who was like a sister, but he never mentioned any other siblings or relatives. Roll was a helpful person, but this one was a cad.

"You're his brother? Then why haven't I seen you before? He's never mentioned you before."

"It's a long story," Protoman replied, with a hint of ego in his tone. Link shrugged, knowing Protoman wasn't saying anymore if Link wasn't saying anything more. "I'm not exactly what you'd call a 'big part of the family'."

"But you're still Mega Man's ally?"

"No. Sometimes we cross paths, but I stay out of his way, keep to the shadows. Once in a while, I might lend him a hand. But I don't get dragged in."

"Don't you think you could do a lot more good on the floor with him, instead of hiding in the rafters?"

"This is his fight, not mine. I've got no desire to see his aspirations fulfilled. But I have no desire to see him blown to pieces either."

Link had never heard a human or robot talk like this before. There was such a streak of indifference in him. Everyone else he'd met had taken a definitive stance in the conflict between humans and robots. He wasn't entirely sure Protoman was telling the truth when he said he wasn't on Wily's side. "Are you sure you're not a robot master?"

"I'm... special. I'm not so simple-minded as other robots. I don't see things so black and white as they do. The world is one big gray area. Everyone else wants a decision that benefits one side totally, and excludes the other. They don't see that no one wins in that scenario. No one's happy."

"That's not true," Link said and clenched his fist. "People like Mega Man are working so that both sides can win and live in harmony."

Protoman shook his head. "Sorry, I just don't see that happening. There's a war going on, but nobody's courageous enough to declare it."

"And whose side are you on?"

Protoman turned to him, "Mega Man's on the side of good. Wily's on the side of evil. I'm somewhere in between. And yet not a part of it at all." He looked over the river with his empty black visor. "I'm tired of getting dragged into Mega Man's fights. I try and stay away from it all."

"But you could do so much more. You're obviously meant for fighting. If you helped him more, you could win this war, instead of it constantly repeating."

"I don't get involved. I'm in this for my own interests, and no one else's. That's the true freedom no robot will ever be able to achieve."

"You know what I think. I think you're just a big coward."

"I am NO coward." Protoman barked angrily, looking straight at him. "I healed your wounds, boy. I can put those broken ribs back where they were and then some."

Link kept his mouth shut.

Protoman continued, "You're an outsider. Don't pretend like you have any idea what our society should be like."

"Sometimes an outsider's perspective is what's needed."

"Hmph," he gave another roguish smirk. "Talk to me when you've led a robot's life."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hm."

Link sighed and turned back to the landscape. "I'm guessing you've led a very hard life."

"I guess you could say I've an outsider's perspective. Besides, Mega Man can handle himself just dandy. Without my help. He's done it six times before."

"But it could be easier with your help."

"I wouldn't help him at all, if I could help it. Sometimes, my programming just gets the better of me."

"This programming seems like such a hassle. Every time Mega Man can't do something he calls it a limitation of his programming. It doesn't do anything but hinder you."

"You've hit it right on the nose, my friend."

"Then why do you do it?"

"Our programming is us. It's what makes me me. We can't live without it. It's also the way humans can control us. We can't do anything but what our programming says. It's written that way. Without it, the humans would no longer be in charge. And they wouldn't stand for that."

"Is that why you won't fight? You hate the humans?"

"I was able, by some miracle... or mistake, to exceed my programming. Others aren't so lucky. But without it, there'd be chaos." He then shrugged.

Link shook his head. He was tired of trying to figure out this enigma. "Well, thanks for saving me, for what it's worth."

Protoman kept silent.

"If you did choose to fight, this is one human who would welcome you along." He looked down at his feet. "I know I can't do it alone."

"Don't worry. Your friend Mega Man should be here shortly, I should think."

"I meant all of us together. Maybe if you gave him a chance to reconcile..."

"Sorry. Two's company. Three's a crowd."

Link was really frustrated at this. This Protoman probably had as much power as Mega Man and was wasting his skills, his responsibility. Of course, he didn't want to argue with anyone who had a plasma blaster and a temper. The red robot looked over the side of the building and jumped.

"Wait!" Link called out. Protoman stopped himself, grabbing the edge of the ledge and pulling himself back up. "Isn't there anything you can do? Anything you can help us with?"

Protoman slowly smirked. "Yeah," he said with pause. "I like your flute. Ciao!"

Protoman released the ledge and fell away. Link cautiously scooted over a bit more to look over the side. He could see no trace of Protoman. He had vanished. And Link was left alone. He had no way off of the ledge that he knew of, no way back in, and it was too dangerous to try and explore. So he sat staring out into the world with his arms around his knees for warmth, with the vastness of the rising world before him and much to think about.

Some minutes later, the window behind him flipped open. Mega Man poked his head out and looked around. "Hey."

"Hey," Link responded.

"Glad I found you. I found out there are two robot masters in this plant. I found one, but-"

"He's dead."

Mega Man, already in the middle of a sentence stopped for a second. "What?"

"He's dead. Defeated him."

"By you? That's awesome! I can't believe that."

"Believe it."

"Excellent. Then we can move on to the hydro plant. Come on." Mega Man went back into the building as Link took one last look at the sky and stood up. "By the way," the robot said from inside, "What were you doing on the ledge?"

"Just enjoying the view."

 **Next Chapter: Level Two**


	54. Level Two

That horrible vibration still rumbled in the alcove. Like a slow drum, it banged on and on, in a perfectly repeating rhythm, doom accompanying each of its steps. The metal grate rattled with each step, her only way to see outside, through an obscured fence.

That cyclops bot was still circling the ventilation tower, looking for her. Somehow she had managed to duck into this storage compartment without it detecting her escape. Unfortunately, there was no available path beyond the bay. So she was trapped, and hiding, and shaking with fear. Her arms were huddled around her legs, sitting in a fetal position as that was all the room this hideaway allowed her. If she could cry, she would be weeping. Her armor was cracked and falling apart. Her power levels were running on emergency systems. Her body felt like it had been crushed in a compactor. Those stupid pistols were useless. She'd only managed to make one successful shot out of about two hundred, and the giant robot hadn't even noticed it. Meanwhile, she was barely clinging onto life, and hiding like a coward inside the hub of the station, trying to escape detection and desperate to find some way out of this wretched situation. Finding none, she felt like she was just waiting for an inevitable death.

Her only saving grace was the apparent ineptitude of the circling yellow devil. By some miracle, its demonic eye had never seen her duck into this alcove. Now, with no target to attack, it simply guarded the hub, looking for the meat for the beast. It knew she was still here, somehow. It knew she was hiding, just not where. For some reason, it hadn't the brain patterns to actually search for her - it was in some sort of watch mode. But she was trapped in here, and the only getaway was back out the way she came.

She could tell when it was getting closer. She could hear the massive footsteps, and when it passed by the threaded grate she spied out of, she could see the horrible yellow mass pass by. Every time its form got closer, she thought surely this would be the time she was going to be caught. This time, it was going to stop at the grate and turn its glowing red eye toward her. It was going to punch through the metal like rice paper, grab her lithe body like a stick and squeeze it until the oil spurted out like an orange.

It approached again, thumping that _DOOM, DOOM, DOOM_ of its footpads down on the titanium floor. Slow. Methodical. No hurry. She would show herself soon enough. She had nowhere to go. It was just playing the waiting game. A waiting game it would win, because it had what she wanted, and she could go no further without it.

The distended yellow hemisphere of its body came into sight, in her square fenced television to the outside. That demonic, sunken-in eye, surrounded by coal black, stared straight ahead. It stopped.

Roll froze, held her breath. The yellow devil's glowing red eye gazed straight ahead, as if stuck. Daring her to make a move. Roll predicted it would quickly turn right, seeing the whole circle of that demon gaze. It had to know she was here. She almost willed it to turn and see her, to know she was there, so it could put an end to all this. To see her, so the torture could end. It just stayed there, immobile, as if concentrating hard on something. Why wouldn't it look in here? Why was it just waiting? Did it see something? Did it know she was two feet from it. Could it smell her? Why was it just staying there? Just do something! Move on!

The yellow devil stepped forward again, as if nothing happened. It just continued its moebius strip around the hub of the station.

This was so stupid. Here she was, thinking she could be the hero, and now she was just huddled in a corner of the station, hurting and waiting for the end. She was so stupid, she couldn't be like Mega Man, let alone better. Mega Man was trained to be a hero. He had something she could never have. She was just a maid. Why didn't she just stay there, like a good robot was supposed to. She had a role that she was supposed to fulfill. Why did she ever stray from it. What possessed her to think she could be like Mega Man, with those tiny pistols and weird green sunglasses. She might as well have just flung open the grate and offered herself to the cyclops. This pain was unbearable. But some sort of self-preservation instinct was preventing her from emerging. Even despite not having the third law installed, she stayed inside. For some reason beyond her programming, she stayed in the dark, hiding, bathed in agonizing fear. Helpless.

Not that it mattered. If she didn't get repaired, her systems would eventually degrade and her memory and CPU would be unable to function. She could already feel her systems going, one by one, circuit pathways dropped off, the hardware failed. Backup systems tried to compensate, but they couldn't be relied on long. They were only a temporary measure. She could feel her systems going... going...

* * *

Plasma globules sprayed out like a fountain from Mega Man's arm. Flying robots imploded in yellow bursts of light, then disintegrated, far long before they reached them. Mega Man's deadly accuracy for fliers complemented Link's ferocious attacks on the ground robots.

Link burst out from behind Mega Man and horizontally slashed a scowling robot made to resemble a penguin across the neck. The head and body flopped down to the floor lifeless. Two more waddled toward them, hopped in the air, and slid on their bellies like torpedoes. Link charged up his sword behind him and released it in a tornado of metal as they approached. The robots flew to the left and right out of harm's way as they got caught in Link's spinning fan.

Mega Man fired a plasma blast above at a oval-shaped bird carrying an egg almost as big as itself.

"Those things are dangerous," Mega Man said over the din, "You've got to get them before they drop those egg bombs. They have dozens of tiny baby bird robots that swarm in and get you."

"Got it," Link said as he jumped up and plunged his sword into a helmeted tank, traveling along the ground. Another tried to bite him, but he jammed his shield into its face, resulting in a piece of it being blasted off. Angrily, Link sliced its turret off and jammed his sword into the hole making it defunct. His shield was starting to look like someone had chewed on it.

Link equated the hydroelectric plant to a water temple. Large pipes and tubes snaked throughout the building, some big enough for a person to go through. Tanks of water rested below and above them, washing back and forth huge amounts of water. They had found an in between floor to squeeze into. It seemed the least guarded of all the routes they could take, which was how Mega Man always did it, taking the path of least resistance.

Link wiped his brow. He had successfully risen to his robot friend's rank of dealing out damage to robots. Getting up close and personal with man-threshing mechanoids was a different tactic, but it was apparently working. Since Mega Man had become a thorn in his side, Wily had engineered his sentinel robots to best deal with his long distance plasma blaster specifically. They were not expecting a sword-wielding Hylian trouncing into their corridor and laying them to waste. The hard part though, was their metal hides made it so much more difficult to successfully make a clean swipe through their bodies. These were definitely not moblins or leevers. He had dealt with armored monsters before, like helmasaurs, but they always had a weak point. These robots were made completely out of helmasaur shell. So he had to put every ounce of strength behind his blows, else he'd get his sword stuck in their hide, which happened occasionally. So far he was having success by aiming for what looked like weak points - eyes, stomach, and anything crystalline. It was tiring him out, his sword had never felt so heavy, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. The goal of trying to match Mega Man's prowess was keeping him going. He wasn't even close to giving up.

Mega Man opened an access port for them to crawl through, having dispensed the malicious attackers in the room. The door opened and shut behind them, depositing them in a room similar to the last one they were in. A large bola hooked into the floor was swinging around, independent of a swinger. The balls on each end were lined with thick pointed spikes. The swing arc was too far for Link to jump over.

"How do we get across this?"

Mega Man tried firing at the bola. The shots clinked off and flew away harmlessly.

"No help there," the blue robot said.

"Can you jump it?"

"Too far. And then what do I do with you?"

Link 'hmmm'ed in thought. This provided an interesting conundrum. It obviously had some sort of robotics involved in it. Otherwise, it wouldn't be swirling perpetually. Link looked a little closer at the device. In the hub of the bola, the center of the circle, a red light was flashing on and off. Rather curious.

"Mega Man, see that red light there? In the middle?"

Mega Man nodded. "Try and hit it?"

"Might work."

Mega Man fired multiple shots at the center, trying to time the shots so they went in between the veering spheres. Some mistimed shots reflected off, but most hit the mark and absorbed in. After a few plasma bursts, the hook holding the bola vanished.

With nothing to hold onto, the bola flung off. The two ends separated, flying in both directions.

"AAAH! Duck!" Mega Man said, and pulled Link to the floor by his tunic.

The giant spiked orb flew over their heads, nearly taking off Link's hat in the process, and embedded itself in the wall. The other flew away and fell into a pit.

"Whoa, that was close," the Hylian said as he stood up.

The two passed over the area and made their way forward, further into the plant. After some steps, the ceiling and floor tightened closer together into almost a tunnel. Suddenly, buzzsaws started poking out of slits on the floor and ceiling. The pair stopped as soon as they saw the first one poke its deadly head out.

"Yikes!" Link said. The saws were alternating between each other, so that one couldn't jump over one without possibly hitting the other. "This is going to take some timing."

"Welcome to my world," Mega Man muttered. He headed out after the buzzsaw on the bottom completed its run, running along the slitted line. The ceiling saw extracted, slicing through air, but too high above to reach the robot's helmet. Just as it fell back in, Mega Man leapt into the air and the saw emerged from the floor. If he had been standing there, he would have been cleaved in two. He continued down the tunnel the same way.

Link sighed and ran after him. The saw from the ceiling came down, with Link cautiously ducking down as he ran through. As it retracted, he could see the white gleam of the rotor start to come up out of the ground. He hoisted himself up, trying to be as light on his feet as possible and narrowly avoided getting the seat of his pants cut.

They weaved in and out of the buzzsaw tunnel. Link tried to step where Mega Man stepped and repeat his actions. A few timing mistakes forced him to hug the wall as the edge of the blade nearly cut off the heel of his boots.

They finally made it through the passageway and into the next area, which housed platforms and pits. Link treaded close to the edge of one and looked down. The darkness obscured the bottom.

"It's too far for you to jump across," Mega Man said.

"Yeah, I-"

"Hold on," Mega Man said and grabbed Link by the belt and scruff of the neck. Link's eyes widened as the robot picked him up off the ground, swung back and flung him to the other side of the pit. The Hylian screamed in terror as he flew over the blackness onto a metal column. Instinctively, he tucked and rolled along the square platform, righting himself quickly.

"What was that!" he called back across the chasm.

Mega Man bounded across the pit easily with his robotic legs and landed next to Link. "You needed to cross the pit, didn't you? Was that a problem."

"I do have this, you know." He pulled out his hookshot and grasped the handle. He pointed it at the ceiling at the center of the next pit and fired. The grappling hook soared up and hooked into the plating. Link released the trigger for a split second, which sent him sailing up, and then stopped in mid-air. He swung forward like a pendulum and reached the other side with no problem. He yanked the grappling hook out of its set and retracted the chain. With a smirk, he turned back to Mega Man and said, "No one tosses a Hylian."

Mega Man smirked and jumped over the pit. Suddenly a yellow blur jumped out of the pit, heading straight for Mega Man. It was a met-tool with a rocket strapped to it. With his inertia, Mega Man wasn't going to be able to avoid it.

On a spurt of quick thinking, he fired his hookshot and grabbed the helmeted robot in mid-air. It latched on, and pulled him back to Link's platform. Mega Man continued the rest of the way unobstructed and landed on his feet. The met-tool's rocket was still firing, and it directed the flare outward, about to take off with Link.

Mega Man grabbed the robot and yanked it off the hooks, then tossed it over the pit where it tumbled end over end into a pit.

"Had to throw that one back. Too small," he punned. Mentally he cursed himself for not checking the edge of the pit before he jumped. Too many times he'd been attacked by robots jumping out of pits. He should have known this time would be no different.

Mega Man opened the door they found themselves at after jumping the pits. The sweet moist air and sunlight of the outside surprised them. Link stepped out into the warm light. There wasn't another building as far as he could see, except for the city in the distance. It felt nice to be out with some nature again. To breathe the air. They were at ground level, at a large factory dock junctioning with a wide, rapid river. Some strange looking vehicles bobbed in the water, tied to plastic posts in their ports. Link looked at Mega Man, asking him what the next move was since they had apparently come to a dead end.

"Excellent," the robot said, approaching the dock. "This will make our trip much faster." He started untying the ropes that held the flat boat at each post.

"What's this?" Link asked.

"It's a hydroski. A type of boat with an hydro-volt unit. We just take it down the river and we'll arrive at the robot master's lair in no time." Having untied the boat, he jumped in and started pressing buttons on the control panel. To Link, it resembled a hovercar, but with no wheels and in the water. It was remarkably flat, making him think of a manta ray with its back scooped out for seats. If it capsized or took on water, it would likely sink very quickly.

"It looks fast," Link said nervously.

"It is. They use it for getting up and down the river quickly, to the other end of the plant." Mega Man started the engine and it hummed to life with an ethereal bass vibration. Link cautiously stepped into the hollowed-out fish on the robot's gesture.

Mega Man looked behind him to gauge distance. He took the circle attached to the front panel in both hands and the vehicle started to back out of the pier slowly. He kept reversing until he was clear of the dock and righted the vehicle until it faced down the river. It bobbed up and down with the current. Mega Man shifted it out of reverse.

A missile blew past his head and exploded.

He turned back and saw two joes on jet-skis skimming down the river, bouncing with the waves and pointing their blasters.

"Damn," Mega Man said. "Okay, you drive, I'll shoot."

"Me!" Link said incredulously. "Why do I have to drive?"

"I can't drive and fire simultaneously. I can't look forward and backward at the same time," he said quickly, pressing a myriad of buttons and switches on the panel.

"But I don't know how to drive!"

Mega Man pulled Link forcefully into the driver's chair in the center of the boat. "Just use the steering wheel to turn it left or right. That's all you need to know."

"What about speed? How do I control speed?"

"Don't worry about that." Mega Man said as he gradually pushed the throttle lever to maximum. The quiet hum of the motor grew to a lion's roar and the hydroski steadily shot off like a rocket. Mega Man teetered and rocked from the waves as he went to the back of the boat to fight the enemies.

Link held onto his hat as the wind picked up faster and faster. "Whoa! Whoa! WHOA!" Link screamed, trying to maintain control of the boat by turning the steering wheel left and right. Whatever happened to reins? The slightest movement of the wheel nearly brought him careening into the river bank, and he quick turned it to the other side, which almost sent him into the other side.

"Careful up there!" Mega Man shouted, holding onto the weaving back of the boat.

"I've never driven before! What do you expect?" He said into the wind as he rotated the wheel again to the other side.

"Just keep it straight!"

"I'm trying!"

Mega Man crouched into the hull, using it for cover, and fired his plasma shots. The two joes, now joined by a third, snaked in and out and fired their blasters. Link's erratic movements were actually providing the cover they needed, but sacrificed their speed. The irregular bouncing was causing Mega Man's shots to fly all sorts of ways, none of them hitting the target. He was caught in a crossfire of missed shots.

Link finally was able to figure out how to move the steering wheel without causing them to shred sand and drive straight. He had to concentrate on knowing the sensitivity of the movement of the boat, and not on the blurs of green passing by his peripheral vision. He hated going this fast, let alone being in control of the vehicle going this fast.

Mega Man traded shots back and forth with the robots. The two skis in front split off and approached at opposite sides. Once one was close enough, he let loose a barrage of blasts. One of them hit the ski itself, causing it to sputter. Mega Man capitalized on its break and fired as fast as he could. The joe's ski absorbed the shots, and he absorbed a few himself. The vehicle exploded in the water, its front board rotating end over end as it splashed along the river's surface.

Just as Mega Man was about to turn to the next one, a sudden jolt of the boat caused him to lose his footing and he fell.

Link felt the huge jostle too and saw that one of the joes was on his side and had bumped him. "Why you little..." Link muttered and heedlessly turned the steering wheel to bump him back, regardless of how close to the bank they were.

The joe and Link became locked in a game of bumper boats. Link gritted his teeth and slammed the robot back as hard as he could, then returned to the center of the river before he got too close.

The joe raised his blaster and pointed it at Link's head. Link's fierce expression turned to shock.

Suddenly a plasma blast came from behind, blasting the joe's arm off. Mega Man, kneeling on the floor with one hand holding it for balance, fired again, aiming from the tops of his eyes. Two more shots took out the ski and the joe's head. The robot dropped back and skidded into the bank, tossing everything overboard.

Link gave him a thumbs up and turned back to the river while the robot righted himself. The river seemed to be getting choppier and choppier, with large rocks now beginning to poke through the water. Now Link had to contend with avoiding certain explosive death on a jagged rock.

Mega Man figured he had reached the most tumultuous part of the river as he continued trading shots with the attackers. Two more had appeared behind the one still leading, and he was really hoping this was the last of them. They couldn't be that much further from the end of the river. The bouncing of the rapids was sending every shot off its mark.

Link saw it before he hit it, but couldn't do anything about it. A drop-off in the river. He couldn't control his speed, he couldn't warn Mega Man. He just hit it as straight on as he could. The bump kept the hydroski airborne for a moment, then crashed down on the water again, spraying Link with water. A horrible screeching sounded from the bottom of the boat.

Mega Man, not paying attention to their course, was surprised when the floor dropped out from under him and he found himself in mid-air. "Whooaaaa!" he yelled out as he saw the boat drive out from under him, replaced by frothy water.

Link glanced back behind him and saw Mega Man about to tumble into the river. Instinctively he grabbed the hookshot from his belt and fired it backward, keeping one hand on the steering wheel.

Mega Man saw the chain pass by him and grabbed it as fast as he could. He hit the water with a forceful impact, dragging the chain down with him. The links rolled out of their reel until it hit the end and stopped. Link felt his arm nearly pulled off, and almost got pulled in the river with him, but he grabbed the steering wheel with a firm grip and held on. The Hylian felt like he was being pulled apart.

Mega Man splashed in the water, trying to keep his head up and find a good grip on the hookshot's end. White foam bubbled around him as the joes sped forward and closed in. He finally managed to find the orientation of his body and gripped the hookshot chain firmly. The taut chain pulled him down the river, as Mega Man stretched out his arms and let his feet fly behind him. He slid along the water like a penguin, and looked like he was trying to take off.

As the joes surrounded him, Mega Man plunged his feet into the rushing water and pulled back on the hookshot. Link gritted his teeth and groaned as he felt the tension on his muscles increase. Mega Man thrust his large padded feet against the water, putting resistance to it, and water-skied off the back of the boat. Still holding onto the chain, he adjusted so he could hold it with one hand, ducking through their shots. He slid over to the nearest joe and blasted his vehicle at point blank range. The jet ski exploded. He switched hands on the chain and fired to the left, taking that robot out too. The third, and last, was behind him, and he changed the grip of his feet so he moved outside of the wake. The robot was now in his peripheral vision and he fired. The shots missed, but the robot slowed down, dropped back, and sailed to the side of the river.

Mega Man arched his eyebrow as he realized this was a retreat. He had no idea why it would do that, but it was out of threatening range now. Maybe it was returning to regroup or something. In any case, they looked to be out of harm's way. He turned back to Link and waved, smiling.

Link smiled weakly through his gritted teeth, stretched between the hookshot and steering wheel, which he was somehow able to manipulate still. At least they finally made it. Mega Man started pulling himself in as Link released the trigger. The spring-loaded mechanism started reeling back in, slowly but steadily under the robot's weight. He looked back over the river and realized a part of the horizon was starting to get nearer and nearer. He peered closer and realized the river was ending... abruptly!

"Waterfall!" Link yelled. But it was too late.

The hydroski flew over the edge of the river and sailed at a perfect 45 degree angle downward. The air resistance seemed to keep it aloft longer, as if falling in slow motion. Unfortunately, the river took a sharp turn in the bend as soon as the waterfall ended, and the hydroski found itself flying over land after a short time. It tumbled, down, down, into the craggy swampy land, where it impaled itself on a rock and twirled on its side. It spun like a windmill, as if it were doing cartwheels, until it hit a bad rock and crashed into the ground, catching the fuel on fire and exploding outright.

From their vantage point on the rock, just at the edge of the waterfall, Link and Mega Man watched their boat collide with the rocks and thanked their lucky stars Link had managed to jump off in the nick of time. Link's body was secure on the outcropping, but his arm was hanging off the rock, holding on to the suspended Mega Man at chain's length below, dangling on a thread.

Mega Man looked up at Link with innocent eyes. "You okay?" he called out.

"You... are... very... heavy..." Link gasped.

Mega Man looked down at the ground, looking for a spot to land. "Swing me over to that land down there," he pointed.

Link, mentally pre-thanking Mega Man for letting go, swung his arm back and then forth, towards the river bank nearby. Mega Man jumped off and landed soundly on the rocky floor, next to a plateau-like face.

The hookshot spun back on its reel and retracted fully. The Hylian stood up on the rock and switched his tool to his other hand, rotating the shoulder of his sore arm. Using the same strategy, he fired the chain into the rock wall, and swung down to Mega Man's landing spot.

"I'm gonna need to get a new hookshot by the end of this," he said, resetting his weapon and putting it back in his bag.

"Maybe we can tune it."

Mega Man took in his surroundings, figuring out where they had ended up. The mountainside they had arrived at had a shallow cavern inside. And a strange... metal door?

"We've arrived," he huffed with relief. "Robot master's lair is beyond that door."

"Goody, another one of these," Link said, looking at the sectioned out metal.

"You get used to them."

Link sighed and braced himself. "At least we get to take him together this time."

He approached the door, which opened automatically. The hallway was lined with circuitry and metal plating, oddly merged with the rock, creating some strange hybrid material. With a few more steps they reached the entrance door.

"What kind of robot is in here?" Link asked.

"You never know," Mega Man replied as the door opened, section by section with a high-pitched clinking. They passed under the jamb and were enveloped into the large square room they had predicted. No robot master was waiting for them.

Until he teleported in from above, fully formed. A large vermilion robot with a strange body. Its torso had a needle gauge on it, and its shoulders curved upward, making his chest look like a crescent.

"Gravity Man," Mega Man said. "Funny. I was expecting a water-based robot to be guarding the hydro-electric plant."

"Sorry to bring you down," he said, grinning. "Let me lift your spirits."

The needle gauge on his torso flipped to the extreme left and a faint humming, increasing in pitch, filled the air. Link suddenly felt his stomach turn upside down. His feet lifted off the ground and he found himself falling UP! The ceiling drew closer and closer. It was all Link could do to twist his body so he landed on his back instead of his body. Mega Man landed on his feet.

Link looked up and saw Gravity Man running on the ceiling... or floor... He rubbed the sore back of his head. "Do all robot masters make horrible puns related to their power?"

Mega Man wasn't paying attention, he had his eyes trained on Gravity Man, following him parallel to his place on the floor. The robot master jumped from one end of the room to the other. Mega Man tried firing as he jumped, but no shots hit.

"Who's your friend?" Gravity Man asked of the crumpled and confused Hylian.

"His name's Link, and he's as lethal as me," Mega Man said as he ran toward him.

Gravity Man switched the gauge on his chest, reversing the pull in the room, which somehow, was the opposite of Gravity Man's pull. Mega Man and Link fell back to the floor, and Gravity Man flew up to the ceiling. Link, just having gotten up and oriented, found himself flying towards the floor again and landed on his shoulder. He yelped in pain.

"He falls well," Gravity Man said and smiled evilly. He ran to the other side.

Mega Man, knowing what was coming, positioned himself a ways from Gravity Man, nearly under where he was. When the gravity switched, they passed by and Mega Man fired at point blank range. The plasma globules hit squarely on Gravity Man's torso and fizzled out with the form-fitting static light that appeared.

"Argh, he still has that light shield," Mega Man cursed next to Link, who was groaning.

"Hee, hee, it tickles," said Gravity Man from above.

"Am I on the floor or ceiling now?" Link said, staring up at some flat surface.

The robot master jumped to the other side of the floor again, and fired a slow moving plasma shot down at Link. Mega Man was about to shout out a warning, but Link saw it and rolled out of the way, where it harmlessly scorched the floor.

Gravity Man switched the polarity once again. Mega Man saw it coming and aimed again. On the pass by he fired all the shots he could. It was hard enough to hit him, but with that light shield in place, he had no hope of ever defeating this robot. All his shots disappeared as they made contact with his glittery surface.

Link tumbled into a crumpled heap as he landed on the ceiling-cum-floor. His shield was half off his shoulder, and his scabbard was splayed against his back. His bag had come open, and all his items were scattered on the floor: his flute, his fire rod, his lantern. The soreness of his body made him slow to get up and try to put his things back in. Before he even reached it, the gravity switched, and Link's eyes widened as he saw the floor sucked away from him. He tried grabbing for his bag, but that peeled off the floor too and fell with him. He landed flat on his back, lightly cracking his head on the cold metal floor.

"Stop doing that!" Link yelled out. "You're gonna make me throw up!"

A sinister smile spread across Gravity Man's face. "Do what? This?"

The gauge on his chest suddenly flipped back and forth. The three of them fell at opposite sides, then just before they reached the floor, started pulling back up again, then back down, up and down, up and down. Mega Man kept himself righted, needing only an instant for reorientation. He shot his arm cannon as much as possible, but to no effect. Gravity Man lowered and rose himself around the plasma shots. Meanwhile, Link felt like a salt shaker, being tossed up and down, up and down, watching his items float with him, while Gravity Man looked on gleefully, soaking up Mega Man's ammo. His stomach felt like they were going to fall out of his body.

"Whooooaoaoaoaoaoaoaoaoa!" Link yelled out in panic.

"Ha, ha, ha" Gravity Man laughed with his hands on his hips.

A soft, high-pitched note started sounding in the air, then faded, then came back. It sounded like Link's flute. The violent shaking was causing air to rush into the pipes.

Behind him, Gravity Man's light shield started to crackle without having taken a shot. Mega Man looked at it curiously for a moment, then fired. Gravity Man took a shot in the arm and recoiled back, grunting in pain.

Mega Man's eyes widened with surprise and he turned to Link. "Link! The flute! It's the flute! It's a sonically deflecting shield! It yields to a high frequency pitch. Grab it!"

Link saw what he meant and tried to swim through the air over to where his flute was floating in space. Combing several different swimming strokes into one, he managed to maneuver the distance enough to snatch his flute out of mid-air. With a fast, gigantic breath he tightened his lips and blew with all his might into the wooden instrument.

A loud ear-piercing C reverberated in the room. Gravity Man held his ears in pain, tumbling backward. The light shield effervesced with static, sparkling across the robot's body, then cracked like an eggshell and flew apart.

Mega Man unloaded into Gravity Man with shot after shot. The robot master was pulsatingly propelled backwards, having no gravity to resist him, until he hit the wall. As he was pinned there, Mega Man unleashed a rapid flurry of plasma power.

"Noooooo!" Gravity Man roared. With one final shot, he exploded in balls of yellow and white light spinning outwards and a echoing sound that gradually faded.

"All right!" Mega Man said as he dropped to the ground on his feet.

Link plummeted to the floor one final time on his back, where he rested. "Yay..." he said weakly as he held up a finger to indicate he was all right.

Mega Man walked to the center and jumped into the air. He hung there for a second as the balls of light returned and rotated around him. He absorbed their light energy into his body and into his system. The energy reformed into solid metal as a weapon slot chip in his arm cannon.

Link finished gathering up his items and stood, as Mega Man dropped back to the floor and checked his weapon copy inventory to make sure the Gravity Hold was there.

"What was that?" Link asked.

"You handle how you get items in your world, and I'll handle it in mine," he sarcastically sneered.

Having finished their work here, they exited the room the same way they came, emerging from the dark hallway, and back to the waterfall and the river. Evening was starting to drop a blue curtain over the sky.

"Phew," Link said, rubbing his bruises. "Where do we go now?"

"The inverser. We need to take a special transport to get up there. I think we're going to have to call for a vehicle to take us there," Mega Man said, surveying the situation. If only they hadn't trashed the hydroski, that would have been a handy device to use. He and Link walked down the river bank, along the flow of the water, while Mega Man opened a communication line to the law enforcement in the area, intending to let them know the situation in the hydroelectric plant was taken care of, and that they needed a ride.

Link looked back at the misty waterfall, seeing the strange mist around it grow thicker. Especially around the middle of the falls, rather than the bottom. He stopped for a second, with Mega Man still walking forward, and examined it closer. It was almost like something was coming through.

"Hold it," Link said and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. He too stopped to look at the waterfall.

The mist grew larger and larger, until it reached capacity. Suddenly, a gigantic ship punched through the falling water. The decayed wood and rotting sails were instantly familiar to Link.

For some reason none of them could fathom, the ghost ship had arrived in this world.

 **Next Chapter: Return of the Ghost Ship**


	55. The Return of the Ghost Ship

"Ahoy! Ahoy there!" came a cry from the deck of the ship some twenty feet above.

Mega Man and Link stared stupefied up at the wooden planks of the deck, their mouths hanging open. The familiar face of Captain Horatio, as a bluescaled transparent ghost, hung over the railing of the galleon, his round, bushy beard tucked over the banister.

Mega Man, remembering his manners, weakly waved up to the captain. Link remained stunned.

Captain Horatio said. "Fancy meeting you blokes here again. Fate makes strange bedfellows, eh?"

"Uh, yeah," Link said. He was as astonished as his robot friend. How in the world was the ghost ship they'd seen in Hyrule appearing before them now? How did it crossover?

"Fancy you be needin' a ride again, then, eh?" He turned back to his men on the ship. "Drop anchor! Lower the rope! Put your backs into it lads!"

They could see the apparitions of pirates drudging their tasks along the main deck of the ship, tottering forward slowly like they were half-asleep. A moment later, the rope ladder dropped off the side of the ship and dangled before the two. Link shrugged to Mega Man, took hold of the rope, and climbed up.

"Come aboard, come aboard," Horatio said as they clambered over the banister. "Our quests cross paths again. Always good to see a familiar face."

Link and Mega Man stared at the squat Captain Horatio, then looked away to the landscape of the river. The pirate arched his eyebrow at them, not expecting a cold reception to friends who should be gratified.

"What's the matter?" he said. "Ye look like ye've seen a ghost. Ha!"

"Uh, captain, what are you doing here?" Link asked.

"Have ye forgotten already? We search for the Pearls of the Triforce. Great wealth-"

"No, I mean, what are you doing 'here'. Here 'here'."

The captain looked at Link oddly for a second and scratched the side of his head. "I dinnae understand yer meaning, lad."

"Captain, do you realize you are no longer in Hyrule?" Mega Man interjected.

"Not... Hyrule?" the captain stammered. He looked behind him at the countryside, where the sun had completely set, curtaining the sky with cerulean. "Have we sailed beyond its borders?"

"Yeah, I'd say so," Link scoffed. "This is nowhere near Hyrule. I can't even tell you how far from Hyrule this is."

"Then... where are we?"

"... Not Hyrule," was all Link could come up with for an answer.

"It'd be difficult to explain," Mega Man said.

The captain walked slowly to the other side of the ship, gripped the railing with his translucent hands, and looked out at the bobbing countryside. He spoke with lament in his voice. "The land has changed so much in my time, that I can scarcely recognize it anymore. Like a caterpillar turned to a cocoon turned to a butterfly, and then back again. Too many lives of men have passed before my eyes for me to see the differences anymore." He turned back to Link expediently. "Then why, pray tell, are you here?" he questioned Link.

"I took a magic portal from Hyrule to here," he explained. "This is Mega Man's world. It's difficult to explain." He paused for a second, then turned to Mega Man. "Yeah, how do we explain this?" he probed Mega Man, having come up with no answers for himself.

"I- I don't know," Mega Man said with surprise. "I could barely explain how you got here, but at least from a general angle it makes sense. But you," he indicated the captain and his ship. "Link was the only one through the portal. But it's clear that the fact you both came from Hyrule is not a coincidence."

"Two things from Hyrule," Link pondered.

"It fortunately means that either my transporter or your portal didn't cause a rip in the fabric of the space/time continuum."

Link nodded like he knew what that was. "So it's something to do with the transport, like, maybe, I wasn't the only one to transport through?"

"No, I think you were. But that wasn't all." Mega Man looked at the captain. "I don't know enough about ghosts to make a firm judgment though. They are something more... metaphysical and unexplainable."

"Watch what you say, laddie," Horatio pointed a finger at him.

"I'm serious. There are no such things as ghosts in my world. That's why this is so unusual. You're something that exists in Hyrule that shouldn't exist in my world. And yet you do."

"And you didn't come through any portal or anything?" Link asked.

"Just sailing the waters as we always do. I noticed nothing strange 'til we saw you."

Mega Man thought out loud to himself. "The fact that you were the first to come through, and now them. Perhaps more? It's strange. Like part of your world is bleeding over." He looked up at Link. "Because you came through, there is still a tether from Hyrule to you. As if, somehow, there's still a part of you attached to Hyrule. Like an invisible rope. I don't think I can explain it any better than that."

"No, I understand," Link said. "The ghost ship is here because I'm here, like I punctured through, and the hole's still open."

"But not so that anything physical can come through. More like the essence of the worlds is leaking through a pipe. Hyrule is the place you belong, and the more time you spend here, the more of your world leaks over."

"So does that mean your world is leaking over? Does that mean Hyrule is full of... robots?"

"I don't think so. Nothing that was constructed by humans could go. Hyrule would probably be experiencing no change, because robots and everything else here is simply made from materials that exist in nature, at their most basic level. Everything in my world exists in your world, but not everything in your world exists in mine."

"So certain intangible elements of my world are leaking over."

"And ghosts are certainly intangible."

"Ha," the captain scoffed.

"And magic?" Link immediately leapt to his bag and pulled out his lantern. The fervent attempts to light it he made were unsuccessful. No light ignited at its center, no matter how much he tried.

"Never mind," he said. It looked like magic wasn't one of the things to leak over.

Mega Man said, "I don't know enough about magic to say whether or not its one of those things that could leak over. For all I know, what you call magic exists in your water supply only. But it's all the more reason to get you back home. If things continue like this, the two worlds may eventually merge. And I don't want to know how people in my time would will to magic."

"You know, you're pretty smart for someone who says they have no creative thinking skills," Link smiled.

Mega Man politely shrugged and smiled shyly. Link held out a small hope that maybe his magic could work, if given enough time to saturate this realm.

"Ye have no magic in this world? How do ye live?" Captain Horatio asked.

Mega Man answered, "Well, what Link uses magic for, we use technology to accomplish. We build machines to do work that would otherwise be impossible or difficult by humans."

"Machines that do magic? What'll they think of next."

"I am such a machine."

Captain Horatio stopped in his tracks. "Wh- what?"

"It's true," Link replied. "That's not armor he's wearing, it's metal. It's his skin. Inside, it's all parts."

"Glory be. This world where they've replaced men with machines. It's far beyond any form of Hyrule I've ever seen. You do speak the truth, then. This is not our homeland." He ran to the bow of the boat and leaned forward, looking to the open river. "Such a man-machine, what feats would he be capable of? No need for humans anymore, when they can be built."

"There is still need for humans. But I'd rather not get into the details of my home society."

"And I'd care not to hear them. My mind feels taxed as it is."

"Don't hold it against him," Link said.

"Aye, I'd never do that. Ha, look at me," he spread his arms, "At least he has some parts inside his skin. Ha! Ha, ha!" he guffawed. "Well, now that that gobbledygook is out of the way, I'd be wagering the two of you be needin' a ride then. Where can I take ye?"

"Actually, that won't be necessary. I've already requested for a vehicle to come by and pick us up. I'm afraid your boat is just too slow to get us where we're going?"

"Too slow? 'Twas the fastest ship in the fleet when it sailed. What manner of boats would you have here that could go faster?"

"Believe me, you don't want to know," Link said as he shook his head and held his delicate stomach.

"Thanks for asking though," Mega Man said.

"Well, boys, 'twas good seeing ye again. Hoping one day we meet under more fortunate circumstances than these."

The two of them nodded. They walked back to the rope ladder and climbed down as Captain Horatio took his place at the center of his boat.

"All right boys!" he called out to his men. "We won't be finding any pearls here. Shove off! Trim the sails! Hoist the anchor! Look lively now!"

As Link jumped down from the boat's line, the vessel began to tread slowly down the river bank, sailing on invisible wind into the west. Link and Mega Man waved him goodbye. At the same time, Mega Man opened a communication protocol to NASA/DSMA, the international space transportation organization. "This is Mega Man," he said into his communicator. Link looked at him, then realized he was communicating with someone out of reach, maybe on the Computer. He was used to it by now.

Mega Man continued, "You've been alerted about the situation? Good. Our vehicle should be arriving shortly. Please have the tether-rocket ready for deployment as soon as... excellent... what...?"

He jerked around in surprise and terror. "What do you mean _Roll is up there already_?"

 **Next Chapter: Rocket Man**


	56. Rocket Man

"T-minus ten minutes till liftoff," came the male voice from the intercom. The large red digital numbers above the front window flipped to 10:00 and counted backwards from there. "You boys strapped in tight?"

"Just about," Mega Man responded to the bodiless person. He was standing over Link's chair, hooking in his cross-straps back to his chair, while Link reclined in his throne. The iron thresh of the fabric would keep him safe and sound for the flight. Link felt like he was a hay bale being strapped to a cart.

"Does it really need to be this tight?" the Hylian asked.

"Yes," the robot responded firmly. After he was done securing Link in his chair he laid down in his reclining seat and fastened his own harness.

"If you guys are sitting down, we're going to fasten the line now."

"Go ahead," Mega Man called out as he finished with one of his bands.

The device in which they were sitting began to hum and vibrate. It also began to rock back slowly, like his chair was reclining. Then a small sense of panic set in, as it felt like he was reclining too far than was comfortable. He felt like he was about to turn upside down.

"Uh, Mega Man..."

"This is normal, just rotating the craft up."

From Link's very secured and barely movable head, the ground shown in the windshield was slowly disappearing, being swallowed by a blue sky that enveloped the screen. A thick gray line divided it in two, tapering and disappearing off into the atmosphere.

The voice said, "We're attaching you to the tether now... Warming up the localized imbalance reverser... Systems reporting green for tension strength for the wheelmotor... And the quantum oscillators under you are good to go, they're quantifying at .08... Pentagate status... Starting up the ambient flux matrix in hexacutter mode... And the weather is maintaining at 75 degrees and clear. Looks like it's going to be a smooth ride for you boys today."

"Good," Link said nervously. The only thing he understood was the part about the weather. He was starting to feel like he was in a tin-can of death. None of the other mediums of transportation he'd been in so far needed this much equipment, or needed a whole giant complex of buildings just to launch from, or this much protocol, or these straps.

"Just get us up there quickly," Mega Man said. "The situation could be dangerous." All he wanted was to get up there as fast as possible. Contacting them ahead of time was the smartest thing he did. The good people at NASA/DSMA had speedily prepared as much as they could before they arrived. There was a slight argument about Link's lack of training for adapting to space, but they didn't have time for that. Mega Man was banking on his ability to learn fast. Space travel was safe, but it was no walk in the park. Why did Roll go up there? Taking on Wily's robots on the safety of Earth was bad enough, but in the isolation of space? Where, if you were stuck for help, it could be days before any got to you? Mega Man cursed her lack of planning and foresight. She just wanted to help? She might have hurt them more than she could realize. She might have known about Wily from all his experiences, but that was no foundation to know what those robots were like in battle circumstances. Wily was crafty and creative and he could come up with anything for a given situation. And he had no idea if Roll's upgrades were even capable of defending against his onslaught.

With the radiation interfering with signals, he couldn't open a personal communication between the two of them. And the station wasn't responding to any ground-to-station frequencies. Anything could be happening right now, and it was taking all his resolve not to fly into a panic about the fate of his sister. He had to keep his cool and calm demeanor in front of Link, who was probably terrified of being thrust into space, a vastly foreign concept to him.

The clock turned past the 7:00 mark. "Do you have any more questions about space? Or the station?" Mega Man turned his head to Link and asked from his supine position. The man on the intercom was droning on more about equipment checks to ground control.

"Yeah, sure, no problem," he replied calmly. "It's like a castle in the clouds."

"Well, actually, its above the clouds. And there's a tether attaching it to Earth. And that's what we're in right now. Like a space elevator."

"No, no, I get that." Link waved his hand dismissively. Or at least he tried to, as his wrist was strapped to the armrest.

"It's going to go really fast. You know that right."

"Yes, yes, it's fine."

Mega Man was overly concerned about him. His business was learning about new environments. His friend had explained to him that space was what you see at night, after the bright light of the sun had gone down and you could see it. It was where all the stars were, and it was vast! Vast, vast, vast. Infinitely vast. Link couldn't even get his mind around how big space was. And there was no air up there, so they needed airtight metal 'shuttles' and accommodations to survive up there. No biggie. This wasn't anything he couldn't wrap his mind around. Wait until he told the astrologers back home, though.

The craft he was in now wasn't any different either. In fact, it felt a lot like the car they had taken in the Antarctic. Maybe a little bigger, and more industrial. And he was facing up. But he wasn't worried, it was just a new experience. Nothing really new. Except for 'G's'. He didn't know what those where but Mega Man said he was going to be feeling a lot of them. Must have been something like particles in space. Could be interesting. Maybe they'd power him up.

Mega Man looked from Link back up to the screen, listening to the messages from ground control and watching the countdown clock tick down the seconds, approaching the two-minute mark. Hopefully, after this they could grab the final piece Wily needed and stop his plans, but it was unlikely. That doctor always had a way of getting the elements he wanted and leaving his trash behind to give him a headache. Fortunately, Mega Man always had a way of stopping him before it was too late. He could only hope that would be the case this time. This was the last chance.

"Ready to activate the launch matrix. You guys ready?"

"Good to go," Mega Man said, giving a thumbs-up to no one in particular.

"We're all green down here. Activating the primary system start-up for launch." The multitude of lights on the control panel in front of them, most of which were red, randomly started to turn to yellow gradually, and then to blue, as the man ticked off parameters and said they were 'go'.

"Pumping the primer now."

Some gauges and meters began to fluctuate, steadily increasing the light indicators from red to green. Link had no idea what any of these meant, but he hadn't known what anything meant since he got here.

Suddenly, a slow vibration started to reverberate in the hull, startling Link. He twisted his head back and forth, looking around as the countdown clock moved past one minute. He looked pleadingly at Mega Man, whose eyes were shut, as if he was trying to sleep. Link swallowed and tried to relax, looking up at the shaking sky.

"Still going well. Oxygen levels, maintaining. Hull pressure stable. Launch matrix activated. Oscillators to full."

The vibration continued as normal. Link was alert, but not scared. This was certainly a big procedure just to go to space.

"Guidance system aligned. Mark: T-minus ten seconds and counting."

The feeling of dread ran cold in Link's veins as he knew something was about to happen in ten seconds, but no idea what.

"Five, four, three, two, one. Propulsion running. Launch commit."

The countdown clock reached zero and started counting back up. But other than that, nothing was happening. The vibration suddenly died. Dead silence. They hadn't moved. Was it working?

"Is this working?" Link said to Mega Man. "There aren't any problems?"

"Yes, everything's fine."

"Nothing's happening."

"It's going to go really fast. I'd suggest you shut your eyes."

If this was going really fast into space, this was easy. "Aw, it's fine. I actually think I'm getting used to these fast-EEERGGKKK!"

Link suddenly felt himself being pressed into the back of his chair like a pancake. The capsule they were in shot off like a rocket up the length of the tether. A thunderous noise masked Link's screams of terror. He couldn't hear anything, even as he yelled at Mega Man to stop the car. He couldn't even breathe. It felt like there was an anvil on his chest. He had to consciously concentrate on breathing, on moving his chest up and down. Out of the slits of his eyes he saw white patches of fog passing through them at breakneck speeds. The sky faded from blue to a pallid wall of white. All he could concentrate on was the immense, unseen pressure on his body.

They punched through the wall of white and into a darker blue. Link's trembling head slowly turned toward Mega Man, who was simply watching the atmosphere pass by, calmly and quietly. Link had tears in his eyes and snot dripping out of his nose. His teeth were grinding together and he slowly brought back his neck around to look up at the screen.

The blue suddenly faded into black. Millions upon millions of stars floated in front of his eyes, and he could see a gray dot attached to the tether they were heading towards. He'd never seen where the border was. It just suddenly went from day to night. The vibration was also receding, and he could hear himself think again. He could breathe again. A peculiar peaceful sensation washed over the panic that he had felt before.

"What happened?" Link said.

"We're about halfway there," Mega Man responded.

"Halfway there? When did I pass out?"

"Pass out? You didn't pass out."

"It's night, didn't I pass out?"

"It's not night, it's space."

"I thought you said it was hundreds of kilometers away!"

"It was. And now we're halfway there."

Link looked out in wonderment at the quickly approaching space station.

"I told you it was fast," Mega Man said.

Link nodded in astonishment. "The ride's so smooth now."

"We're pulling further and further out of the planet's gravity. Inertia is doing the rest now."

It was true, they did seem to be gliding on the tether like a zipline. Link was finally calm enough now to appreciate the infinite immensity that space was. This was what the night was really like. How much more was out here? How many more worlds could there be?

"Retro thrusters firing," the computerized voice of the capsule said.

"What's that mean?" Link asked.

"Slowing down. We're approaching the station."

Indeed, they did appear to be slowing down. The station was becoming larger and larger in view now. It appeared just like the picture Mega Man showed him. There was a large metal circle floating around a vaguely cylindrical tower. Spokes attached to the halo like a wheel. And it just kept getting bigger and bigger as they moved closer, its growing size astonishing Link.

His eyes widened as it almost seemed like they were going to crash into the station, but by looking at the tether, he knew they weren't going to. They passed under the gigantic rotating halo, which Link followed as it passed overhead. Mega Man gave a small smile at Link's child-like fascination.

They slid along the tether, arcing up and under the circle and to the bottom of the cylinder. It was almost as big as a building, but it seemed like they were crawling towards it.

"Going kinda slow?" Link asked.

"Don't want to fall off the tether and tumble into space."

The Computer said, "Approaching Space Station. Please remain in seats until further notice is given."

The capsule finally came to a complete stop, apparently under the bottom of the station. Nothing happened for a while yet though. Some lights flickered between yellow and blue.

"Airlock connecting... airlock connected... pressurizing chambers... complete. Releasing safety belts."

The straps holding Link and Mega Man simultaneously and spontaneously released. Link was surprised for a second, then followed Mega Man's lead and stood up.

The robot stood behind the seats and looked up at the ceiling. A door panel opened up and a ladder dropped down into the capsule. The two of them climbed up, past a vertical hallway, and entered a hub room in between two hallways.

This was interesting. Things looked even more advanced than in other industrial buildings he'd seen, but wasn't too different in essence to the factories or plants that were numerous on his world. Just a bit more constrictive.

Mega Man approached a large viewscreen in the hub. It was a computer terminal, and someone had accessed it recently. Interesting. Could have been Roll. He pulled up an information feed and downloaded all the pertinent information that had happened after Roll's arrival. Nothing major had occurred. At least no explosions or fissures that he was looking for.

He looked on the motion sensors, scanning for Wily's minor robots. There were surprisingly few, mostly away from the center of the station. Maybe Roll had taken them all out already. There was nothing too unusual, except for on the hub deck. There seemed to some activity up there. Something larger than normal. Worth checking out. He changed from motion sensors to the nearest surveillance camera.

"Aw, no, not again."

He could see the yellow devil traipsing around the deck malevolently, his one red eye staring forward. It was almost as if it was looking for something. The camera kept targeted on him as he passed by, whirring its servos.

Suddenly, the cyclops stopped in its tracks. It whipped around with its giant meaty hand and crashed into the camera, wiping it off the wall like a bug. The image on the monitor turned to black.

"We've got to get up there now," Mega Man said, and pulled on Link's tunic toward the elevator. They speedily headed up the lift and exited onto the hub deck. This was a big circular corridor, walled off in the middle. They looked to the left and right cautiously as they poked their heads out into the area. No activity. Link drew his sword, Mega Man his arm cannon, and they emerged.

They heard a sudden roar from the left and darted towards it. Two giant yellow boulders flew around the corner, speeding like comets.

"Duck!" Mega Man yelled and dropped to the floor. Link saw two more coming at him in a pair. The Hylian weaved back and forth, barely avoiding their trajectory. He could feel the wind as they rushed by. Mega Man grabbed him by the tunic and dragged him back down. The boulders passed overhead, accompanied by a flock of others.

"What in blazes is that?" Link asked. "Robots?"

"One robot. He has the ability to split into parts. Very dangerous! Jump!"

One of the rocks was skidding on the floor, intending to bowl them over. They leapt over the projectile, then returned to a crouching stance as more dashed in the air.

Mega Man turned around as soon as the onslaught let up, and Link did the same. The pile of boulders that had collected formed into a gelatinous yellow hulk, with a single red eye.

"It's only vulnerable point is the eye," Mega Man instructed, putting on his ferocity and fell back to a more strategic position.

"No problem with that," Link said as he pulled out his bow and arrow. He'd encountered many one-eyed monsters, especially in the Dark World, and it looked like things weren't different here. With his arrow nocked he fired a shot straight into his red orb. The metal point of the arrow clinked off and fell away.

In response, the robot's eye flashed white and a laser fired down at Link. He jumped out of the way, just in the nick of time and the light scorched at his feet.

"Aggh, my boots are on fire!" Link yelped and danced out of the line of fire. Mega Man stepped up and leapt in the air, firing three shots straight at the eye. The plasma was absorbed fully, but the monster made no reaction. It took a huge step forward and backhanded Mega Man against the wall. As the little robot fell down, he tried to figure out why the rock monster wasn't feeling his shots. It was upgraded and he was downgraded. It was probably going to take more shots than normal to defeat this gargantuan.

The yellow devil picked up Mega Man with two bulky fingers and flung him down the hallway. He skidded along the ground like a doll.

Link dropped back into the sight of the monster. "Eat ice!" he said and thrust his ice rod at it. Nothing happened. The cyclops returned fire with a laser blast from its eye. Link instinctively brought out his shield and held it in front of him. The laser collided with the shield and shattered it into so many pieces it might as well have been vaporized. Link was left holding not much more than a flimsy armguard among a thin sheet of smoke.

The cyclops brought down his fist like a hammer, Link rolled out of the way, barely avoiding being crushed into jelly. With a last ditch effort, he took his sword in his hand, taking a breath to pray, and threw it like a javelin at the red glowing eye. The monster simply waved the blade away with its fingers before it even came close to hitting. It clanged behind the yellow devil, far out of reach.

"Uh, Mega Man," Link called out as he dropped back and helped his dizzy and prone friend off the floor. "I think we need to call in reinforcements."

"We are the reinforcements," Mega Man uttered as he stood up on one knee and swayed side-to-side as Link worked to steady him.

The yellow devil picked up its huge feet and plunged them into the ground, moving ever closer to the cowering pair. With each step closer, the height of the monster seemed to increase as its shadow enveloped the two.

It suddenly stopped and slowly twisted its head/body mass to the left. Link and Mega Man furrowed their brows at this odd behavior, until they realized what it was looking at. Behind him was a picture window looking out into space. The yellow devil turned around and thump, thump, thumped toward the window.

"What's it doing?" Link asked.

"Stop him!" Mega Man said, freeing himself of Link's help and standing on his own. "He's going to break the window. If he does that, we'll be sucked out into space!"

Link and Mega Man sprinted toward the retreating back of the cyclops robot. His huge girth was taking up most of the hallway, and Mega Man couldn't find a way around him. Link picked up his sword and started clanging it against the back of his leg to no avail. Mega Man futily fired his plasma cannon at his backside. The shots bounced off harmlessly. It was getting closer and closer to the window.

It stopped its ascent as it reached the portal and wound up its gigantic fist ready to make a giant thrust through the transparent material. Mega Man and Link redoubled their ineffective efforts, desperate to do something to distract him from what he was about to do.

"EEEYAAARGH!"

Just as the rock monster reached the apex of his punch, the ceiling burst open and Roll dropped down onto the yellow devil. She wrapped her legs around the top of its blobby head and rode him like a bronco, holding onto it with one hand and a jagged sword-like shard of metal in her other, high above her head. The cyclops released his fist and sluggishly flailed its limbs trying to grab the insect on its head, but its arms were too thick to bend that far and reach her successfully.

"Stay away from my brother!"

She plunged the metal shard at an arc, down into the cyclops eye with super-robot strength. The crystal shattered, spitting out bits of broken vermilion on the ground, and red and yellow sparks flowed out like blood. The yellow devil thrashed its arms desperately. If it could scream in agony, it would have. The frantic flogging shook Roll off of her perch and she collapsed on the ground at Mega Man and Link's feet. Her brother immediately crouched down to help her.

"I did it, Rock," she said weakly through half-closed eyes.

Link watched the yellow devil toss and tumble about, trying to compensate for its broken eye. Parts of its liquid litanium armor became goopy and began dripping off its body, liquefying on the floor. As it picked up its left leg, part of it stuck in the floor and tore away from the rest of the body. Without stability, it leaned backward, little by little, falling away. When it crashed on the ground the liquid metal splashed up like a huge drop of milk and thinned out to the consistency of water. What was left of the yellow devil seeped through the cracks of the floor and laid at rest.

Link turned his attention back to Roll. Mega Man had his arms around her shoulders, trying to help her. "Roll, are you all right?"

"Yes," she whispered. "But my energy... so low... so sorry... I thought-"

"Don't worry, don't worry. We can get you some energy, there's plenty on the station. We can you get you some energy."

"I got rid of the robots."

"Yeah, you did good, Roll... you did good." Mega Man hugged her shoulder tightly, bringing her across his knees. Her eyes closed and she slept soundly.

* * *

It wasn't long before Mega Man found the energy capsule he needed for Roll by destroying a weak robot. Mega Man explained, while on the hunt for such a thing, that sometimes when robots were destroyed, they could leave behind their power cores if they were damaged in such a way to leave them intact. Sometimes it was just the inner core. If they were fortunate, sometimes they left the entire nucleus which yielded four to five times as much power. But the power cores contained directly usable energy that robots, like Mega Man and Roll, could plug into their internal reaction system and power it up if it was low. Like robot food.

Once Mega Man delivered it to Roll, she was right as rain and good to go again. Link realized that the near instantaneous reaction was similar to a red potion in his universe. Although he kept the remark to himself, he appreciated seeing one of the parallels of their two worlds.

Once the trio was ready, they headed up to the control deck, the central command of the station. Mega Man had his arm cannon out and ready as the lift doors open, with Link and Roll at his sides. Not a soul was there though.

"Interesting," he remarked. The three stepped out onto the deck, their eyes scanning the computer stations and consoles for human life. There was a large picture window stretching from ceiling to floor and wrapping around nearly half the hemispherical control center. The small window dome at the top of the command deck was also clear and gave a view of the space above and ahead. But not a soul was around and only the quiet bleeping of computers killed the silence. "This gets eerier and eerier."

"No time to worry about that, we've got to fix the station's orbit," Roll said.

Mega Man nodded and moved up to the pilot's console near the head of the deck. Link and Roll looked over his shoulder, watching him zip through screens and command lines, trying to access the engine control.

"The engines were fired at 2217, by unknown user."

"Must've been Wily," Roll said. "Can you fix it?"

"Trying. I need to calculate trajectory, mass, current gravity, lots of variables."

"Well, come on, Rock, it's not rocket science," Roll said glibly. Her brother smirked briefly and focused on the console in front of him.

Mega Man's fingers flashed between screen and keyboard interface as he racked his computerized brain trying to figure out how to bring the space station back in orbit. No one had ever trained him for operating a space station, but you could be an expert on anything if you just used logic. The difficulty lay in the projecting calculations, and if he could take care of that, he would be home free.

Suddenly the screen switched to a red flashing light with the words 'ACCESS DENIED'.

"Wha-?" Link said.

"It's protected. Access to the engine control is encoded. I knew there would be a lock." He slammed his fist on the metal panel to accentuate his anger. "Cracking." Mega Man set to work, trying to decode the password using backdoor means. This meant going under the covers of the operating system, which was no easy task for a schema of this magnitude.

"Double lock?" Mega Man wondered out loud. He'd discovered something unusual.

"I'm on it," Roll said and took control of the console two away from Mega Man. She began proceeding down the same screens as Mega Man, trying to look under the hood for the way in. The brother and sister team worked in tandem, accessing and manipulating the memory registers to create a path in, while Link looked between their flashing screens. They were concentrating so hard on interacting with the screen they barely noticed he was there watching.

"Fifty percent," Mega Man said.

"Almost there," Roll said.

"I'm under the database code control. Nearly..."

"Enter code 2456224687. I got it!"

"Me too," Mega Man said. "Activate in three, two, one, mark!"

Both Roll and Mega Man pressed buttons simultaneously, whatever they were. A rumbling was heard deep with in the bowels of the station, accompanied by the vocal message 'firing thrusters'.

"Yes!" Link yelled out.

Mega Man let out a sigh. "That was tense," Roll said, somehow delighted to be in the thick of dangerous times.

"Yeah, no kidding," her brother replied. "That was weird, a double encryption. You'd need to have two people to just to access it. How did Wily get around that to fire the thrusters to get it out of orbit in the first place? He couldn't do it by himself."

"Probably with me," came a voice from behind.

The three of them turned around and looked at the elevator door. Standing just outside the doors there was a robot master, covered in a light blue crystalline armor set over his black body suit. Four melded long gems protruded from the brow of his helmet, splaying back like a star.

"Or should I say... us," he said as he stepped back in a battle stance and a gleam swiped over his armor.

A sparkle on his helmet grew brighter, like a star, until it exploded outward in a flash of light. Link, Mega Man, and the others closed their eyes and turned away for the briefest of moments as they were blinded. When they looked back, they saw two of the same robot, one spacing itself out from his brother and readying itself to fight.

 **Next Chapter: What Goes Up...**


	57. What Goes Up...

"Gemini Man," Mega Man said coldly.

"Gemini Man?" Link queried. He looked back down at the sword he had partially unsheathed and shoved it back in his scabbard. He should have known with that crystal armor.

"You're going to be the last thing this space station sees," they said in tandem, and held up their squarish arm cannons on their hands. Two blue lasers emitted out, heading straight for the group of them. The three of them turned and leaped over the top of the computer console they were standing against for cover. The lasers passed over, reflected against the glass, and started bouncing around the room haphazardly.

Crouching behind their shelter, Mega Man leaned next to Roll and whispered something quickly. She nodded. He then turned to Link. "Can you provide a distraction?"

"Can I?" Link said incredulously. "I _am_ a distraction!"

Mega Man looked back at Roll who nodded once firmly.

"Go!" he said.

Link jumped back out from his cover and began brandishing his sword with one his favorite techniques, rolling it side to side and spinning it in his hand, crying out an attention-getting battle yell. Mega Man did the same, though he jumped to the opposite side and fired his plasma cannon at the two of them. The robot masters moved to intercept the two foes respectively, matching their movements.

As the gap between them was wide enough, Roll leapt out from above the console, with her feet under Tango in skateboard form. Fire burst out of the tail-pipes as Roll grabbed air, holding onto her flat cat. She flew through the narrow space in between corridors, down the center of the command deck. With the Gemini Men each assigned someone else, they had opened a clear gap to the elevator, but she had to speed.

"Get her!" they shouted out, with their guns pointing to the others. She zipped by on her board and disappeared into the lift. Mega Man and Link ducked back under the computer console, with their distraction complete. Roll slapped the emergency close button without looking as she breached the doorway. The robot masters stopped their fighting and fled to the door, but it was too late. They clambered up the shut entrance.

"After her!" the left one said to the right.

"She's of no concern," the other said. "The inverser is safe, and she can't escape from the station. We'll finish these two off, then go after her. The way through is shut."

Meanwhile, Link rejoined Mega Man, who was checking his arm cannon, behind the computer console. Link was exasperated from the stress of so many battles, but his gusto was increasing his tolerance limit.

"Is he going to split into anymore guys?" Link said between breaths.

"No, just two. He's named after a constellation that resembles a pair of mythical twins."

"Which one's the real one?" Link had his eyes looking behind him with his back to the rampart. He gripped his sword tighter in his hand.

Mega Man was a little confused with this question. "They're both real. You hurt one, you hurt both of them. It's another of Wily's tricks with holograms."

"How does it work?" Link said, looking back.

"I don't know," he said sarcastically, "I've never gotten close enough to find out."

Gemini Man and his brother had lost track of Mega Man and Link when they became distracted by Roll. They scanned the computer consoles which had become small barracks in front of them. "How foolish!" one said. "You might have managed to scrap together some sort of defense with three. But now it's two on two."

"Did I say two on two?" the other Gemini Man taunted. "I mean two on very shielded and invulnerable two."

"Is that so?" Mega Man said, looking at Link and smiling. The Hylian smiled back, already digging out his instrument. "Play it again, Link."

Link took a huge breath and blew into the flute as hard as he could. The ear-piercing shriek felt like it would shatter the thick windows.

The two incarnations of Gemini Man took a step back as if the ground was trembling underneath them. Their light shields flashed with static and fuzz, as if they'd been hit. The flickering went faster and faster until the white veil splintered and dissolved away.

"Our shields!" Gemini Man said.

Mega Man popped up from behind the console. "Now... it's even." He fired off a series of blasts from his arm cannon. The Gemini Men dodged most of the yellow balls of plasma. Link emerged as well, spinning his sword in his hand, ready to test its might, crystal armor or no.

The Gemini twins ignored Mega Man's blasts and fired their own Gemini lasers at various points around the room. Blue beams of light tore through the computer equipment, and refracted off the walls. In an instant the command deck became a hazard course with lasers bouncing back and forth like tennis balls.

As Link finished brandishing his sword, he looked ahead. "Holy cow!" he exclaimed as he saw a blue ray of light zipping toward him. Without thinking, he leaned back and let the beam pass over his head, where it bounced against the window wall at a 45-degree angle and headed up. More were coming. Link spun around, weaving and ducking around the rays threatening to tear through him. He flipped onto a handstand, still holding his sword, as one whizzed between his legs. With all the dodging he was doing, he couldn't manage to get a step forward. His shield might have deflected the blasts, but it was in pieces now. His agility training was paying off in spades, but he was useless like this. At the first opportunity he ducked back behind the console for protection.

Mega Man treaded back and forth between either enemy, holding his arm cannon steady as a rock and firing constantly. But the robot masters were fast and coordinated their efforts. They could jump as high as the room, and as soon as one came down, the other leapt up and fired a volley of lasers around. The blue bomber strafed back and forth, trying to avoid the onslaught and still make some hits. It was being very ineffectual. He noticed Link had hidden back behind the console and dove beside him.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

"No," Link said. "But I can't do anything, there's too many of those things flying around," he said, obviously flustered.

"Lasers," Mega Man corrected.

"Come out, come out!" Gemini Man said, ceasing their leaping tactics and heading over to where they had taken cover.

"I really hate hiding," Link said.

"Don't worry about it. You can't do anything about them. I'll take care of it." He touched Link on the shoulder in support and sprang back over the console. He fought more intensely, knowing it was just going to be him in this battle. The exchange continued.

Link stared open-mouthed ahead. Can't do anything? No way. No way was Link going to sit here idle while he did all the work. That was not what he had come here for. He was not a cheerleader. His sword might not have been able to even get close to Gemini Man, but he had projectile weapons too. He pulled out his fire rod out of his knapsack and held it out in front of him, concentrating hard. It remained as dull and lifeless as when he had entered this world.

"Quit jumping around!" Gemini Man said from their position.

"You first!" Mega Man replied. They were leaping like frogs, trying to avoid getting hit. Only the Gemini Man robots could jump much higher and faster, and more of their spread was filling the room than Mega Man's directed volley. Only his superior robot reflexes and awareness were keeping him untouched. The gemini lasers moved slowly, but were numerous and unpredictable in their movements.

Link kept trying his fire rod, furrowing his brows as he shook it violently, as if trying to get ink from a pen. The clicking noise it made when he tried to start it repeated hollowly.

"Come on, work. Work, dammit, I know you can." He was clinging onto that thin thread of hope he had maintained ever since he found magic couldn't work in this world. That somehow, magic wasn't confined just to his Hyrule. That it was more than that. That it was everywhere. That it crossed borders. That it had no limits. That it was still there. But the fire rod continued to give empty responses.

"Errrgh," Link grunted in desperate frustration. This was his one and only chance. Mega Man couldn't possibly avoid all those lasers for long. Eventually, one was going to bounce off and hit him. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't stand by and watch him die in battle. He hadn't come this far to see that. He slammed the rod violently against the computer in frustration.

A small flame suddenly enveloped the red orb at the end of the scepter with a quiet FOOMPH.

Link stared wide-eyed and stunned at the pilot light of the fire rod. He let forth a weak "Hah!"

Mega Man used the console as a jumping point and bounded into the air. Suddenly, two lasers converged from opposite ends, bouncing off the ground and up into Mega Man's body. He flashed with an electrical charge, grimacing in hot pain, and fell on his back on the computer console, disoriented.

Just as the jumping Gemini Man returned to the floor, and the two set off, ready to charge him, Link surfaced from behind his blockade, holding his two enchanted staffs, one in each hand.

"Hey, boys," he said, twirling the twin rods in his hand. "Surprise!"

He thrust the fire rod in front of him as hard as he could. A massive fireball erupted from the globe at its end and rushed through the air, hitting the one on the left. He tried to shield himself with his shoulder, but the supernatural flame was much too strong for that. The blazing sphere collided and knocked him back against the wall, creating an outline of his body, shadowed in scorch marks.

The other Gemini Man, stunned, turned back to Link, and stared directly at a blast of ice particles zooming towards him. The shards of frost penetrated his face, freezing it, and knocking him to the floor. Gemini Man grasped his frozen face, preventing him from speaking.

"What technology is this!" the burnt one said, struggling to stand up.

"This isn't technology," he said as he sprang on top of the computer console and crossed his rods in front of him. "It's magic!"

He fired a dual blast from each of his rods. A fireball and an ice blast for each of them, and each collided with full impact. The ice blast crashed into the arm of the Gemini Man on the right as he held it up in front to shield his face. The laser cannon on his arm shattered and broke off. The other received a flaming comet, knocking him head over feet. Half his face was blackened beyond recognition and part of his fleshy skin melted off, revealing the metal interior.

The disruption Link had provided gave Mega Man enough time to recover and come back to Link's side. The Hylian jumped off the console, flourishing his weapons. As Gemini Man recovered and stood up, Mega Man whispered into Link's ear. The robot masters, furious with anger and indignance at being bested by a human, glowered at the two.

"Death!" they yelled, and leapt over consoles as hurdles, charging the two of them.

Link, with Mega Man still in his ear, looked up to the ceiling and a smile spread over his face. The Gemini brothers halted in the middle of their charge, skidding to a stop, and looked up at the ceiling as well.

In the dome skylight, they could see Roll outside the station, looking down at them. She waved.

The robot masters' eyes widened and their jaws dropped as they saw her bring her arm back and plunge it into the center of the window.

Shards of glass fell upwards into the blackness. Air formed into white gas that rushed into the newly made hole.

"HULL BREACH. HULL BREACH," the computer announced. "COMPENSATING PRESSURE. RESTORING OXYGEN. FORCEFIELDS ON MANUAL OVERRIDE."

The four in the command deck squinted their eyes from the tearing air threatening to lift them up like a cyclone, but the artificial gravity in the station kept them down. Link's eyes were beginning to water.

"What was that for!" Gemini Man said, unabated, his feet firmly planted on the floor. They were becoming used to the wind and looked straight at Mega Man. "Trying to kill your human friend?"

Mega Man said nothing. Instead, his color changed from blue to purple armor over white. Gemini Man's head snapped back in surprise. Mega Man looked at Link who was clutching onto something on the ground. "Ready!" he shouted above the pandemonium.

Mega Man fired his arm cannon out at the twins. But nothing happened. Except for a flash of yellow light that swiped the room. Then the Gravity Hold took effect. Any loose items, pens, papers, small tools, coffee mugs, headphones, wires, floated off, up through the breach and into space.

Gemini Man realized that their feet were levitating off the ground. By then it was too late, the Gravity Hold had taken effect and they were ineffectually flailing their arms, trying to restabilize. Their inertia got the best of them and they floated up, up, up, heading right for the ceiling. Like a vacuum cleaner the jagged hole in the skylight sucked them up and spit them out into the depths of space. Roll waved them goodbye from her position on the hull. They tumbled end over end in the aether, flying up and up voicelessly.

Link watched them float away and wink out like stars. "I guess Gemini Man lived up to his name," he said.

Roll crawled over the glass skylight, grabbed the edges of the cavity, and flipped herself back into the command deck. The effects of the Gravity Hold had worn off, and she dropped down to the floor.

"Computer," she spoke, "Reestablish forcefields, code 2529."

"Forcefield override removed. Forcefields activated."

A transparent yellow sheet spread over the hole in the ceiling, form-fitting it exactly. The air stopped rushing, conditions were returning to normal.

"That was the last one?" Link said.

"Yeah, but its still not over," Mega Man said, "You heard him, he got the inverser. He has the three things he needs. We've failed. We didn't get there fast enough. We wasted too much time. We failed. He's going to put a human brain inside a robot. He'll be able to create a true, thinking robot. He'll be unstoppable. If we only knew where he was..."

"We know where he is!" Roll exclaimed. "Antarctica!"

"They checked there. They didn't find anything. They scanned it with a fine toothed comb."

"But the robots, the base, don't tell me he's not there," Roll demanded.

"They've done scan after scan. They haven't revealed the location of his castle at all."

"What if its underground?"

"They would have detected it with seismic graphs."

Link piped up, "What if it was invisible?"

Roll and Mega Man turned their attention to him. "I mean, he did the same with that version of you he created. Why couldn't he make it one of those holograph things."

Mega Man thought for a second. Then turned to Roll. "Roll, what were the coordinates you found?"

"Twenty-three degrees forty-three minutes south, eleven degrees three minutes west."

Mega Man entered that data into a program in the console, as well as multiple other commands. He brought up a picture of the aforementioned coordinates, with the caption 'sat cam'. The photo revealed nothing but empty snow.

"Hmm..." Mega Man mumbled. He typed in more commands.

A side picture showed the rotating globe, shifting on its end to show the South Pole. Strange structures were positioned around it. Mega Man finally pressed the large enter button and looked out into the stars.

The satellite in the far corner of the window was rotating on an axis. Two wings made of square flat panels gleamed as light was reflected off. Another satellite, farther away also yawed to a different position. On the computer screen those strange floating structures were moving, displaying data in constantly changing numbers, either increasing or decreasing. Finally the satellite ahead of them stopped and a concentrated beam of light flew to the other satellite. That beam reflected off and disappeared around the bright blue light of the Earth.

On the computer it showed the sunlight traveling around the circumference of the planet, zipping from satellite to satellite until it finally reached the one hovering over Antarctica, where it directed the glow straight down like a drill.

On the live satellite feed of the location, the white suddenly became brighter, like daylight. Then a giant castle faded into the foreground like magic. A mixture of strange looking colorful towers, antennas, and fortifications were distributed around the perimeter, looking like it was made by a deranged mind too obsessed with robots. At the core of these bizarre defenses was a giant skull, staring blankly into the monitor with its empty eyes.

"There it is," Roll said. "Skull Castle. Right where I said."

Link and Mega Man looked over her shoulder at the large, intimidating structure.

"Let NASA/DSMA know, get the tether ready, get us a transport," Mega Man said. "We're going back... for the final battle!"

 **Next Chapter: Skull Castle**


	58. Skull Castle

Stinging bits of ice torn up from the landscape bit Link in the face. The snow speeder was doing a good job of propelling them through the icy desert, but Link was the only one suffering through this bumpy ride. Robots didn't feel anything, so they probably weren't experiencing this. No thermal shield this time either, but he didn't really need one. They had provided him with a very warm parka, colored in light blue with furry trim around the hood, and big goggles that made everything seem orange. Plus he was sandwiched in between Mega Man and Roll, with the male driving through the light storm.

The speeder took a sharp bump over a snow drift, hurting Link's posterior. No one had said anything so far, not just because of the incommunicable wind, but they were so focused on their task, it was the only thing in their minds. There was only one thing to do now, only one thing they could do: stop Wily.

Mega Man took the speeder up an incline of snow, and stopped it at the crest of the hill, skidding it to the side, so they all could look down into the valley, and the accompanying structure.

"There it is," he said, "Skull Castle."

Link pulled off his orange-tinted eyemask to take a look. It was much grander in person, like the castles of his world. But strangely twisted so it would fit here, full of technology and machinery. Large spires with satellites, blocky, smooth architecture, comprised of metal instead of brick. The colors and patterns resembled something a madman would make - vivid, unconventional, untrackable, insane. And a giant deadly skull comprised the foundation of the citadel. "It's not invisible anymore," Link asked. There was no beam of sunlight projecting onto the fortress anymore. "I thought only sunlight revealed hologram."

"He probably turned it off," Roll said.

"It doesn't need to be anymore," Mega Man added, "He's been found, there's no point for him to maintain the cloak."

He revved the engine, and Link replaced his goggles. With a quick turn of the handlebars the robot dropped the speeder off the peak of the hill and they zoomed swiftly down the slope.

"How do we get in?" Link shouted above the engine roar.

Mega Man responded, "Various ways. Sometimes there's an access port, or a sewer pipe, or underground."

Guard robots were starting to come out of the woodwork, vaguely humanoid soldiers carrying laser guns. The three of them made short work of the minor enemies. Mega Man held onto the handlebar with one hand and shot with the other, Roll fired her guns, and Link pulled out his ice rod.

"Chill," he said to one approaching guard and fired an icy blast. The surrounding cold intensified the gust and froze the robot through to its core, coating it in a pallid frost.

Once the surrounding robots were eliminated, they sped up to the front of the castle. The skull now loomed over them too large to be seen in one eyeful. In front of them stood what looked like a doorway, shaped as a large arc, and made completely of smooth, pure metal. Mega Man ran his hand along the partition, and it was solid as a rock. "It looks like a doorway. But there's no keypad, no access card, no retinal scanner, not even a doorknob."

"This was meant to keep people out," Link said, "Not let them in."

"Then we go around?" Roll asked.

Mega Man knocked on the door, resulting in filled metal sound. "Maybe not. Link, how hot does that fire thing get?"

"Hot," Link smiled.

"Can you fire a concentrated stream at the edge of the door?"

Link flipped the already produced fire rod in his hand and shot a continuous fiery blast at the doorway. Lava-like material streamed out from the red globe, like a geyser of water. Link aimed it at the bottom of the door, and slowly traced the outside edge. Where the volcanic fire had been, the metal was left glowing red. When he was finished, the entire doorway was trimmed with ruby, the surrounding snow melting into water.

"Okay, now do the same thing with the ice rod," Mega Man commanded.

Link smiled and did so, delighted his magic was working usefully. He fired a steady stream of blistering hoarfrost out of the diamond pendant, overwriting the extreme heat he had just developed. You only needed to have a basic understanding of metal-smithing to know what he was doing. The heat expanded the metal, making it malleable, and exposure to the extreme cold would destabilize the structure, making it brittle.

When he was done, Mega Man approached the door. "Kiai!" he yelled as he thrust his big boot at the door. The frail doorway broke apart at the rim, cracking straight through, and fell down with a thud inside the dark castle. The three of them entered. The furnace like heat billowing out from the fortress forced Link to shed his parka and goggles.

When Mega Man had called it a castle, Link had expected a castle, and on the outside, that was what it looked like, albeit twisted to this world's quirks. In the front entrance, he was expecting what all castles had - a large receiving hallway, meant to impress and humble visitors to the kingdom. Sometimes they were plaqued with trophies and mementos of past conquests or tapestries of the royal bloodline.

This was a horror.

There was darkness all around him, nothing ahead. But when he looked up, he saw it. The factories and machine plants he had seen so far were busy, but organized and well kept. This was chaos. Robots were everywhere and working like insects, serving their specific task only. Flying robots zipped from one end to the other, spider robots crawled along posts, click-clacking their little legs, searching around. Pincer robots picked up objects and moved them from one conveyer belt to the other. Robots attached to zip lines moved back and forth unendingly, carrying parts and objects from one end of the factory to the other. Helicopter robots zipped around manufactured objects, welding and fusing sections together. Robots grabbed parts and did nothing else but hold them while other activities buzzed around. Robots with nothing but heads, robots with shields, robots with arms, robots with legs, disjointed body parts who only did only what their part let them do. Hundreds and hundreds of robots all working.

They droned around every possible factory implement there was. Gears, tubes, plugs, wires, girders, beams, pipes, hooks, gauges, levers, cranes, coils, cogs, sprockets, wheels. There was motion everywhere. Sparks flew off the welders. Tarred smokestacks puffed vile ashen pollution into the towers of the castle from the darkness. The thrumming sound of motors and the crackle and screeching of metal works was almost too much to bear. It was like someone's techno nightmare.

"They're everywhere!" Link said, holding his hands to his ears to dampen the sound. "We can't take them all on."

"They won't fight," Mega Man shouted over the horrible ruckus. "They're not meant to. They're meant for building. That's all their programs will allow. They won't fight us." He stepped further into the citadel. "Wily's castle is like a giant robot factory. That's all it's meant for, that's all that's in it. Just building enough robots to take over the world. Robots that build robots. He's the only human who lives here and he's usually hiding out in some obscure corner of the fortress."

"What's the way through?" Roll asked.

Mega Man scanned the area. He found a ladder far out of reach at the other end of the tower, hanging from another unseen floor, and pointed to it. They ran under the terrorful beehive of disorder and headed for the ladder. Mega Man leapt in the air and caught it by the bottom rung. Link skidded to a stop just as Roll leapt over him and followed under her brother.

"Wait," she called out as she ascended, "Link can't jump that! We have to help him."

"He's fine," her brother said, still climbing.

Concern spread across Roll's face, and she stopped to look back down. Link had pulled out a device that looked like a wooden arm cannon and aimed it up at the ladder. The grappling hook shot out and cleanly latched onto the ladder's rungs. With the release, Link zipped up to the ladder and caught it, climbing immediately. Roll shrugged at her brother's justified indifference and continued up. Apparently, he was right in believing Link was a capable battler.

And capable he was. Mega Man often had to take indirect routes, traveling up and down dangerous passageways lined with hazards and robots galore, trying to reach Wily without having to withstand an onslaught of robots and taking the slow way. With the three of them, they mopped up the floor with Wily's haphazard army. Mega Man provided fire at the front lines, blasting his arm cannon at incoming robots. Roll kept watch at the back, using her deadly accuracy to fire her twin pistols. It took a few more shots to bring down a robot then her brother, but the double firepower helped out. Her targeting scanner could see incoming robots in the darkness before her brother could. They both kept Link in the middle to protect his fleshy armor. Which was fine with him. He helped out with his magic implements, touting his ice rod and fire rod. The magic had returned to his boomerang as well, and he was able to stun enemies like he was supposed to, giving the two robots more than enough time to blast them to vapor. The icy blasts could freeze robots in their tracks, or drop fliers to the floor. And the scorching heat could crispify exposed wires or components. With his friends' protection, he didn't even need his absent shield, which would have been useless anyway. He finally felt like he was equal.

They traveled up and down spiked passageways, dangerous pits, and robot enemies, heading right for the center and up, past level one, level two, level three, level four, level five. Wily's forces flew at full intensity, but the combined effort of them all wiped out any resistance. They headed steadily up, climbing many ladders, crossing over platforms, and twisting through towers. Finally, they arrived at the legendary door. The door they all knew. The sectioned metal gate.

"We're going in?" Roll said.

"You bet!" Link and Mega Man said. It was the only way to get to Dr. Wily. As they approached, the door slid up, offering them access. Once in, the way was shut, and they had no choice but to brace themselves for whatever could come, and move forward through the darkened corridor.

"Is everyone ready?" Mega Man asked.

Link gripped the scepters in his hand, holding onto them tight.

Roll cleaned off her visor and brought out both of her laser pistols. "We're ready."

Mega Man stepped forward and the gate rose up in chunks. They proceeded through.

The room they were now in was shaped in a wide cylinder, like a carousel, trimmed with copper moulding on the ceiling and floor. The walls were made of some sort of smooth dark blue-green material. In the middle, there was a giant tower-like hub, but it didn't fit with the rest of the surroundings. It looked like a gigantic copper coil around a green pillar spoked out with panels and buttons and lights.

"You recognize that?" Mega Man said with delight in his voice.

"It's the conduit coil!" Roll said. "Wily's got to be around here."

"Destroy it!" Link said.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Mega Man pulled out his arm cannon and fired.

In an instant, a glass case shot up around the pillar, encapsulating it. The plasma burst bounced harmlessly off the exterior.

"Litanium glass!" Mega Man said incredulously.

"Wily knows we're here," Roll said.

At that moment, confirming Roll's guess, a floating platform high above appeared behind the conduit. They could see the two smooth metal disks lined with purple providing the necessary magnetic lift to keep it aloft. Over the edge peeked the face of the copy of Mega Man, Wily's clone, down to every exact detail.

"Stand down!" Mega Man shouted at him, aiming his arm cannon.

The clone responded with a charged blast of energy. The three of them jumped away as the blast exploded around them. Mega Man and Roll returned fire. The Mega Man clone steered his platform so it shielded him from the assault. He rained down plasma blasts on the two. Mega Man and Roll scattered around, making themselves scarce. But the clone was paying no attention to Link. Good for him.

Link pulled out his magic boomerang while attention was focused elsewhere. He hurled it as hard as it could, spinning around and around and around. Without looking, the Mega Man clone caught it in mid-air just inches from his head, his eyes still focused below. With a sickening crunch he crushed it with his fingers. Link's eyes widened.

Roll, meanwhile, was scanning the area for weaknesses. Several different visual acuities flashed across her visor, pointing out different characteristics. Nothing was catching her attention as a vulnerability. "This isn't working," she said to her brother.

"Well, when one weapon doesn't work..." His color wiped to red and gray. "Try another." Mega Man shot his magnet missile in the air. It homed in, drawn in by the magnetic hoverpads, and exploded. The platform tremored from the detonation, rocking to one side. Mega Man fired more and more missiles. He didn't even need to aim them, the magnetic forces drew them in and blasted the platform. The Mega Man clone swayed back and forth from the blasts, until his vehicle couldn't take anymore, soared down into the floor and crashed. Yellow sparks spouted outward. The clone jumped off before the crash landing but found himself surrounded by three heroes pointing their weapons at him.

"You're through doing Wily's dirty work," the real Mega Man said.

The clone looked around, then glowed blue for an instant and transformed into a shooting comet that rocketed up through the ceiling.

"He teleported!" Roll exclaimed.

"To the floor above," Mega Man said. He looked to his human friend, "Sorry, Link, time is of the essence."

"Oh, sure-" Auras enveloped the two robots as they looked skyward, and they soared up though the ceiling in the same manner, before Link could finish his sentence. "No problem... not."

Link put his rods back in his bag, left alone in this auditorium. To have come so far, fought so hard, just to be left behind at this crucial climax? He didn't think so. He understood why Mega Man and Roll did what they did. Their enemy went someplace where he could not follow. At least not as quick. And that stupid robot wouldn't even acknowledge he was there, he focused all his attention on the two and didn't pay the human a passing glance, only to break his boomerang. Well, he sure wasn't just going to sit here and wait for Mega Man to come get him after it was all over. He wanted to see Wily's face person-to-person. He wanted to see the man who caused so much strife in this world. Link already had someone like Wily in his world, who always kept coming back, who had infinite power and delusions of supremacy. He was gonna make sure it didn't happen in another.

He ran his hand along the smooth obsidian that walled the room. It was a perfect curved loop. Nothing was around it, nothing could penetrate it. There wasn't even a light switch anywhere. The copper moulding wasn't moving either, it wouldn't even be pried off. Link made three trips around the room before he gave up on finding anything around the perimeter.

He crossed his arms and stared at the center of the room, looking up and down the conduit coil shrouded in the glass case. This was that giant pillar that Wily had taken in the first place. It probably stretched several floors up or down and was obviously an essential part of his experiment. Therefore, Wily would be very interested in keeping this room accessible. Thus there had to be some way out of here. Assuming the roboticist wouldn't take the toll of teleporting in here, something that would probably wreak havoc on an old man, he would have put in some way in and out. Not via the gate, that wouldn't give access to the pillar. He needed to be able to operate the pillar so it would do what he wanted it to do. No doubt he needed all the panels and lights on it configured in such a way to allow whatever was going to happen happen. And since it was so big, he would have some way up and down its massive length, like perhaps an elevator. Of course, Link hadn't seen any of the like on their way here, so it had to be hidden somewhere. It had to allow travel through the length of the coil without letting others in. So it had to be locked. But they didn't use locks with keys here. They used... those things... oh, what were they called again? Passwords?

Of course. A lock involving the Computer. How else would a scientist lock something?

"Computer?" Link said. "I'm going to unlock the door with the password."

"Please input correct password."

"Uh..." Oh, what were those ones Mega Man said in the desert? Those ones he said were common. Link tried to make himself remember. He started mumbling to himself, hitting his brain, "Come on, password, password..."

"'Password' is the correct password. Access granted."

A section of the glass litanium opened up before him, big enough for a doorway. A section of the conduit coil lifted out, rolled off of its surface, and inclined down until it touched the floor, like a tongue lolling out of a mouth.

"Well, that works," Link mused. He stepped onto the ramp and entered into the conduit elevator. The door closed back up, shrouding him in the blackest darkness. He hadn't realized this was hollow, although he supposed it needed to be this big in order for people to perform maintenance on the inside. It sure wasn't for comfort, as he was afraid to put out any extremities for fear of them being shredded off. In fact, he wasn't quite sure he was moving. The deep humming thrumming of the coil dampened any noise he might hear from the lift taking him up. He could feel vibration under the soles of his boots, but that also could have been from the low frequencies. The only indication was that light was somehow scrolling down in pinprick holes and seams around the column. Also the air around him felt like it was moving, but that could have been ventilation fans. He kept his arms and fingers tucked in.

If he was moving, he could feel himself slowing down. Perhaps he was reaching the top. The light seams in front of him faded, and the majority of the humming was now down below him. His ears were popping from the pressure, as if he were in the mountains. He must have been quite high. A hole in the ceiling opened up and the lift pushed him on the roof of the coil, on a flat surface. The outside air hit him like a refreshing splash of water. But it was still pretty dark. He turned around and saw Mega Man pointing his arm cannon squarely at Link. He knew this wasn't his Mega Man, but Wily's clone. It was not by the fact that he saw Roll holding her real brother supine in the background of the platform they were on, nor by the surprised look on either of their faces. But it was the cold murderous look the Mega Man in front of him had in his eyes.

Wily's Mega Man fired his arm cannon into Link's chest.

Link saw the plasma blast rip through him before he felt it. It tore through his flesh like a hot rock through snow, coming out his back, leaving a gaping hole where the shot went through. Time slowed down. Link stupidly dropped his head to marvel at the fresh puncture in the middle of his torso, cauterized from the super-hot plasma, swallowed. Then the world faded to black.

Link's eyes glazed over, and fell back up into his head. His knees buckled out from under him, with no more strength to stand. They collapsed on the metal grating and the body flopped over on its side.

 **Next Chapter: Final Boss**


	59. Final Boss

"NOOOOO!" Mega Man outstretched his hand down to his fingers, helplessly lying on his back, with Roll on her knees tending to him. He tried to launch himself at the murderous robot, but she held him back, preventing him from a suicidal attack based on blind anger. He struggled against her grip, but the huge blast he'd just received had temporarily delayed his motor reflexes.

Link laid there, face down, pressed against the metal grating of the floor on the roof of Wily's castle. The clone stayed there for ten seconds, glaring down at the fallen body coldly. Then he turned around with unhurried malice back to his doppelganger and a chilling smile crept over his face. Roll and Mega Man looked up at him, eyes wide and watery with horror. The light in the rear cloaked him in dark light.

He vaulted into the air, jumping onto another platform yards away. Then like a leap frog he continued on, moving up the stepping stairs that circled around the garret to higher elevations. He was obviously tempting Mega Man to follow him, to exorcise the rage and achieve the vengeance he had just instilled.

Mega Man freed himself from the floor and Roll's hold. His sister let him up.

"You coward!" Mega Man called after him, holding out his arm cannon. "I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Red hot anger burned in his eyes. In the same manner, Mega Man leapt after him, jumping from scaffold to scaffold in the same route.

Roll started after them, then halted in mid-step, and glanced back to Link's body. She clasped her hands in front of her chest, and stared at him, a sad, quizzical look on her face, like she didn't know how to react. There was so much she couldn't understand about human life, but the ability to be full of life one minute and wink out the next was something beyond her comprehension. Between the fighting and the escape and everything that had happened, her sympathetic nerve was raw. Her artificial emotions forced her to pay her respects, albeit briefly. Her logic programming told her to run after her brother and win this fight, for there was nothing she could do now.

Mega Man had cornered his clone to the edge of the dark platform, and engaged in a firefight. Plasma shots were traded back and forth, but Mega Man couldn't seem to get a shot to connect. The clone could dodge and weave anything Mega Man put in his path. He shot with the ferocity of having lost his friend to this beast, but he couldn't make a single hit count. He wasn't blinded by his fury like a human would be, it only made him more determined. Still nothing was working. This robot was pure hardware, a war machine, able to anticipate his every move and counter it. He always thought his advantage was his humanity, the ability to think a little better than Wily's robots. But this type of cold, battle A.I. was driving him to the limits. Wily had always made robots superior to him in hardware. Did he finally make one superior in all aspects?

The Mega Man clone charged up a Mega Buster shot and fired. Mega Man barely dodged, lost his center of gravity, and fell on the cold metal. This gave the opportunity to pelt him with short shots, draining his energy. Mega Man quickly got up on his feet and returned fire. His plasma shots were too slow, and he didn't have the advantage of charged power. He did however, have one thing his foe didn't.

Mega Man switched from plasma cannon to gravity hold, his blue exterior switching to white and purple. Without hesitating, he activated it. A flash of light surrounded the arena, but the robot showed no effects. His feet stayed permanently on the ground. This did not worry Mega Man, some robots were immune to the physical effects, but their internal systems would still suffer damage. He tried again, jumping over the continuous plasma shots he was being attacked with. Again, no effect. The robot didn't even flash with electrical discharge as robots do when hurt. He didn't recoil, he didn't even blink.

Frustrated, Mega Man tapped his reserves of weapon energy, funneling everything he had into a single shot, draining his tank. When he fired, he felt the air around him shift, cringing as the gravity effect shockwave erupted around him. He felt like he was buffeted by air cushions. But still the clone was unfazed.

Mega Man switched to magnet missile, and himself to red and gray. The missiles shot out two at a time from his arm cannon, flying up into the air, about half the distance between the two, and skyrocketed down at him. They exploded with pressing force, compelling the Mega Man clone to step back. Now he flashed with electrical damage.

The clone shrugged off the hit, and Mega Man fired volley after volley of missiles. The magnetic beacon installed in the software honed in every time, even as the robot thrashed his arms to deflect the splash damage. Mega Man paid no attention to his weapon energy, he was too focused on hurting this abominable copycat. With teeth gritted he held out his arm cannon and shot his final missile. He only noticed the reserve was drained when he fired and nothing came out. A quick check confirmed it, he was out of juice and his enemy had more than enough to spare.

Seeing no more missiles were coming his way, the Mega Man clone brought his hands from his eyes and unleashed the power he had stored inside his weapon full force. In the instant Mega Man had checked his weapons for anything else, and found nothing, the energy ball collided with him and tossed him back like a rag doll. He ended upturned on the grating, weak and gasping for power. Still on his back, he turned over, leaning on his hands and panting for air. The clone held his arm cannon across his chest and walked up to Mega Man.

"Haven't you got anything left?" it said in a low register.

Mega Man's eyebrows slanted sadly over his eyes, desperation on his face.

* * *

Link lied prone on the raised stage. Wisps of smoke emitted from the burnt flesh around the cavity in his torso. His face was smashed against the grating, and his eyes were shut, as if he collapsed from unconsciousness, sparing him the dead man's gaze. The warmth of life still lingered around him, but it was slipping fast.

Link's knapsack, still attached around his belt, suddenly twitched. Then it twitched again. And a lump protruded out from the center. Like a mouse, it shifted left to right, as if budging around the contents inside, heading towards the sack's open end. When it reached the opening rim, two tiny hands lifted up the heavy cow leather hide flap, flipping it open. The curtain exposed a tiny young woman with red hair, and a small purple dress which allowed two dragonfly wings to jut out of her back. An aura of pink light surrounded her.

She looked around, and saw the giant body of Link, a slab of meat on the floor. Her wings flapped once and she was aloft. Silently, the tiny form hovered over the length of his corpse, as if she was inspecting it. Then she drifted over his torso and took out a small wand. With a flourish she sharply rapped it twice over him, sprinkling sparkling powder. The powder fluttered over Link's body and diffused away. Then, her job done, she flew away up into the darkness and disappeared from sight.

The cavity in Link's chest started to slowly taper down, becoming filled with what should have been there - his bones, skin, organs, even his clothes were reforming. The wound was draining away like it was bathwater, vaporizing back out of existence. It closed up around the center, leaving Link's body whole again.

The Hylian's shut eyelids fluttered. Then opened. Link's first sight was that of darkness. Then he tried to remember what happened. A strange sensation was in his chest, and his face was in pain, because it was pressed against a metal grate.

Link extracted his face from the floor, pushing himself up on his hands, and wiped the drool from his mouth. There was a tightness in his upper body he couldn't identify, but it was fading away to normalcy with each second that passed.

"Wha... what happened?" he muttered and rubbed his head.

"And here I was thinking, that was a wound not even magic could fix."

Link turned around to the voice and saw Protoman standing there, with his arms behind his back, leaning on a nearly invisible black pylon. That same stupid smirk on his face. Link was still groggy and unsteady and seeing him evoked no questions as to his presence now.

"Did you save me?" Link asked.

"Apparently, I didn't need to. You have friends in tiny places."

Link's eyes furrowed at this statement. A hint came to his mind and he burrowed around in his holding bag. The glass bottle came to his fingers and he pulled it out. It was empty and the cork removed.

"My fairy..." Link whispered. "I forgot I even had her." He put the bottle back in his bag and sighed with relief.

"You put her in there?" Protoman said. "Thank god she didn't suffocate."

"They're magic creatures. I always bring one with for their curative powers. And they're always watching me, to make sure I'm all right." Link stood up on his stiff feet, strength returning to him. His brain fully realized Protoman was standing in front of him. "Are you here to help us?" he asked hopefully.

Protoman shook his head. "Hardly. I told you. I don't get involved. I stay in the background and watch. All I do is lend a hand once in a while if he needs it. And if I feel like it. Mega Man has to prove himself before I'll help him."

"Prove himself?" Link questioned. "Prove himself!" Link asked with a little more audacity. The first question was meant as a request for clarity, the second meant as indignant explanation. "What in the world does Mega Man have to do to prove himself? Haven't you watched him enough? Don't you know what he does? Just in the time I've been here, he's proven himself a thousand times over to me. I can't imagine what he's done before."

"All under one's instructions. Dr. Light still pulls his strings. It may be just a general order - 'protect the world'. But it's still an order he has to fulfill. If he wants me to partake in his life-threatening acts, he has to show me he's as strong as someone who doesn't take orders."

"Meaning you?" Link asked from the tops of his eyes.

Protoman looked up and away, his eyes staring into the space under his visor. "I have to see if he's weaker or stronger than me. It's been a question plaguing me since the beginning. I don't understand it yet, but I have to know." He turned back to Link. "You, on the other hand. I know where you stand. I know where most humans stand, but you're definitely different." He pulled himself off his leaning post and took his arm out from behind his back. "Here."

He tossed over a large disc object that Link caught in the air. It was his shield, a replacement, right down to the last minute detail.

"Took an interest in your shield. Made you a new one that might be a little better suited to the enemies you'd be facing here. Pure litanium, just like mine. It'll reflect anything."

Link held the shield in front of him. It was just like his original shield, every symbol, every mark. Lined with sharp silver metal, on top of which was a blue background and yellow designs of the royal insignia. "It looks just like mine," Link said astonishedly.

"It is just like yours. Robot memory's an amazing thing."

"I can't believe you did this," Link said happily.

"I've always thought the best offense is a good defense." He shifted his weight back up straight. "Don't say I never did nothing for you."

A red glow surrounded him, obscuring his figure, and he vanished up into the air. Link yelled out a heartfelt "Thank you!" unaware if he was ever heard.

* * *

Mega Man's only recourse was to keep jumping around. It was only prolonging the inevitable. No power remained for any of his two acquired weapons. His energy generator was going critical, it had taken too much damage. He could feel it leaking out the seams of his armor. This clone was simply too much to fight. Wily had taken everything he was and improved upon it. It was the ultimate Mega Man killer. It wasn't meant to replace him, it was meant to destroy him.

Roll had stayed at the edge of the arena, pelting him with shots from her laser pistols as she could, but she might as well have been firing mosquitoes for all the good it was doing. The Mega Man clone was ignoring her as if she wasn't there. And when he was finished with her brother, she would be next.

Mega Man jumped to the side, as a double-charged shot went by, nicking him under the arm. His movements were getting slower and slower, not so that a human would notice, but a robot would. That clone's evil smile was still on him. He stood in the center of the circle, taking potshots at Mega Man, laughing inside as he danced around amusingly.

Mega Man dropped to one knee as he landed, too weak to stand on both feet, and held his chest. "Please... stop," he whispered. Having run out of options, he had resorted to his last-ditch effort - begging.

The clone zipped up to his counterpart and grabbed him by the breastplate, holding him aloft. "There is no mercy for you," the clone said robotically. He outstretched his arm cannon, charging it to maximum. "Die."

A sound from behind. "You first!"

A gleam of metal, accompanied by an iron shink sounded in the night behind the Mega Man clone. Mega Man looked down and saw a huge gleaming metal spike projecting from his chest. The clone stared down at the skewer with indifferent anger, his battle face still on. He tossed Mega Man back to the floor and whipped around.

"Whoa," Link said as he staggered forward. That sword was stuck in there hard, and when the robot spun he was either going to be thrown with the sword or he could let it go. He chose the latter.

The clone stared at Link in the face, with the same angry, murderous gaze, his lip curling in a sneer. He grabbed the sword from the blade side and pulled it through the rest of his torso defiantly, tearing up more of his body by ramming the hilt through, and threw it at his feet. He lifted his arm cannon again and fired.

Link grabbed the shield off his back and held it by one of the leather straps just as he shot. The plasma blast reflected off the shield with a -tink- and flew away. The clone fired several more shots, as Link slipped his arm fully in the straps and crouched down, hiding his entire body within the shield. The clone never saw him dip into his bag and pull out the ice rod.

At the first gap in the stream of shots, Link peeked out from behind the shield, and poured out a jet stream of ice at the robot's foot. Concentrated ice melded the metal of the boot to the floor. When the clone tried to break free, and couldn't, and looked down at it. Link used the minuscule opportunity to shoot again at his arm cannon, freezing it in place. The Mega Man clone tried to keep it out of the ice's path, but the moving servos were slowed down by the cold and Link kept his stream on it. With his arm and leg totally frozen in place, all he could do was stare hard at Link grimacing fiercely.

Link returned the defiant gaze as he picked up his sword off the floor.

"You like death so much, have some!" He wound his sword back behind him and charged up a huge spinning slash. With a fierce cry, he swung the sword, a light trail followed the blade as it swiped cleanly through the neck of the evil robot. Link spun completely and returned to his stance.

The clone's evil expression froze. The hum of his charged blaster slowly faded away, something never heard before, as weapon energy never lost its hum unless the power flow had been interrupted. The clone's sinister smile dropped. The corners of his mouth plummeted into a grotesque surprised frown.

His head fell off his neck and clunkily rolled on the ground like a football. Yellow sparks burst out of the neck opening. Frayed wires and rotors, thinking there was a head still attached, frantically skipped around like a wind-up toy knocked over on its side. With a kick, Link pushed the robot over and it clanged to the ground in a hollow echo.

"Link!" Mega Man said.

"You're alive!" Roll exclaimed. "H-how?"

"A little magic fairy dust."

Mega Man smacked his forehead. A slow laugh spread across his lips, slowly evolving into a full belly laugh. Roll looked on in bemused confusion.

"What?" she said.

Mega Man got up from the floor and hugged Link across the shoulders. Link gulped for breath in the metal arms of a robot hug.

"I'll explain later," he squeaked out to Roll.

Mega Man, still wrapped around Link, opened his eyes, and found his arms were clasped around his shield. "Whoa, you got your shield back?" He released the hug and looked at him. "Did the fairy do that too?"

"Uh, no, not quite. That's a long story."

Mega Man looked at him quizzically, but let it go. There would be time enough for questions later. Hopefully.

"I know I never asked, but where are we?" Roll said, joining the happy couple. She looked up into the pitch blackness. It seemed they were the only ones lit in this dark abyss.

"Probably somewhere on the top of the fortress," Mega Man said.

"Yeah, I can feel the air, but it's warm," Link agreed.

"Climate controlled probably. I don't know why the conduit led up here though. It would mean..."

A ringing sound of a spotlight being switched on resounded in the chamber. A tiny pinprick of light could be seen far away. They couldn't really make out who it was. But there was only one person it could be.

An echoing loudspeaker switched on. "Come into my parlor... said the spider to the fly. Heh heh heh," the distant voice of Wily spoke.

The three of them started walking towards the light. No robots came out to meet them. No other guards. It was just them and him. The final showdown.

Dr. Wily was sitting in a chair. His arms were locked to the armrest by metal cuffs. There was some sort of helmet fastened onto his head, matting his white hair down around his ears. A pipe attached to the helm, leading back up somewhere beyond the darkness. It looked as if he was strapped to an old-fashioned electric chair. He sat as still as a mannequin, only moving his eyes.

"Nice to see you again, Rock," his voice boomed. "I always try and make your stay in my fortress a pleasant one. Kudos to you on using the satellites to reveal the invisibility cloak. As well as defeating my light shields. Bravo, indeed. Your problem-solving programming just gets more and more innovative."

The three continued heading straight to the light, unimpeded by his taunts.

"And Roll," he said with sadistic joviality. "I haven't seen you in ages. You've changed quite a bit from the housemaid who used to vacuum near my workstation, haven't you? It looks like Dr. Light's given you the same treatment as your brother. Do they call you Mega Woman now?"

Roll said nothing, grim determination overshadowing her face as she walked on.

"And wherever did you find your remarkable human friend. I found it hard to believe when I saw this pointy-eared boy speak to me so impudently, that he would actually be capable of defeating any of my creations, let alone a robot master. He even found a way to triumph over my remote-controlled Rock. With nothing more than a sword and a shield. Hmph. Such courage."

"That's my specialty," Link replied.

He realized as he got closer that Wily wasn't moving his mouth as he spoke. This was rather odd. Perhaps it had something to do with his chair, or that thing on his head. Mega Man and Roll were worried what that meant too, but prevented it from showing on their faces.

They were only a few feet from Wily now. Mega Man raised his arm cannon to him, and Roll gulped.

"Surrender, Wily," he said. "I'm taking you back to prison for the crimes you've committed."

Wily's speaker voice audibly heaved a tired elderly sigh. "We've been through this dance before, Mega Man." He slowly craned his head up, and progressively raised his wild eyes up to the ceiling behind him. The three of them, fearing what he was looking at, slowly raised their eyes up too.

Two glowing blue eyes lit up in the dark, 70 feet above the ground, and something huge and towering leaned forward in the dark over the three of them. Light reflected off its red and black armored breastplate. It raised its massive tree trunk of a leg and stepped down, next to Wily's chair. The ground shook like an earthquake as the foot connected, nearly causing all three of them to end up on the floor. It was nearly 70 feet tall.

"Let's change the tune," Wily said. The hulking mechanical form was built like a humanoid soldier-tank. Cannons protruded out of its shoulder, its wrists, its knees, and it wore some sort of Viking-like horned helmet, with a faceless visage that had no mouth, just a pair of brutal eyes.

"Look out!" Mega Man said.

"Holy goddesses. It's a giant robot!" Link exclaimed.

The colossal battlemech droid took another step forward, advancing on its enemies.

"That's right," Wily said, "I've done it." He laughed maniacally as the three of them realized what he was saying. "I've done it. I've done it! Selkirk's work is a reality. I've made the ultimate sentient life form. The body of a robot, with the decision-making abilities of a human. This truly is complete freedom. Now, not even you can stop me, Mega Man."

"And you put yourself in a giant mechaniloid?" Mega Man yelled out over the thunderous movements.

"Why build a robot, when you can build a big robot?" he laughed. "Speaking of which..." The mecha raised its giant leg, and positioned it over the form of Dr. Wily. With a tremendous crash, he brought it down on the entire contraption.

Mega Man, Link, and Roll stared horrified at what Wily had just done. At first, Mega Man suspected this was another robot dupe. His doubts were trounced though, when he saw a puddle of red blood oozing out from under the sole.

"I certainly won't be needing this anymore," Wily said.

 **Next Chapter: For Everlasting Peace**


	60. For Everlasting Peace

The giant mech flexed his arms downward, as if he was moving for the first time, stretching out his mammoth torso to emphasize his size. He hunched down to the three of them and red missile points protruded out of the shoulder mounted cannons.

"Look out!" Roll shouted.

Small air-to-ground missiles fired out with high-pitched whines, sailing up and down erratically with jet streams gusting out. Roll, Mega Man, and Link scattered around, as the rockets chased them. They exploded in mid-air and on the ground all around them. Link skidded along the ground to a stop, crumpled into a ball, and held his shield over him like a turtle. The two robots weaved and dodged the incoming fire. The darting projectiles swooped around like attacking birds. Roll took the initiative and started shooting at the swooping missiles. After two misses she hit one and it exploded harmlessly away from anyone. Mega Man got the idea and shot his cannon as well, pelting the area with minor explosions. Link's shell was protecting him from the shrapnel, and Mega Man ran over to him to protect further, acting as a sort of plasma cannon turret defense.

While her brother did that, Roll took the chance to activate her scanning visor. Green plastic poked out around the earpieces of her helmet and wrapped around her eyes. The neon lime grid immediately went to work, using x-rays, power emissions, and component breakdown to analyze the structural weak points and strong points of the gigantic beast they were fighting. Lines of data filtered into her visual cortex.

Mega Man took out the last missile, just before it was about to attack Link from the side. "Come on," he said to him, and scooted back to the middle. Link pulled off his shield and stood up, reorienting himself.

The tremendous robot brought up its boulder-like fist and slammed it down into the ground with all the fury of an earthquake. The impact drove out giant shockwave tremors, causing all three of them to lose their footing and land flat on their backs. They slowly started to stand back up, struggling against the loss of balance and perspective. Wily sent out a trio of large plasma balls out from the cannons set in his waist, one heading for each of them. Roll and Mega Man jumped out of the path, away from Link, too far to help him.

"Link!" Mega Man shouted.

The Hylian saw it coming, knew it was too late to avoid the impact. Instinctively, he rolled to the side, only managing to make it on his stomach before the plasma hit. Fortunately, the ball impacted the shield on his back and deflected off into the darkness. Link scrambled to his feet and held his defense at the ready, recognizing he was going to need it a lot more than he usually did.

Roll's internal computers finished the analysis and fed her the results. "Mega Man! The head! The head is the vulnerable point!" she shouted and pointed over the roar of the robot's engine and thrashing.

Mega Man looked up at the towering behemoth. Its head was like a bowl set on a coffee table to an ant. His shots would be so inaccurate, they would never hit. Nonetheless he tried firing anyway. A set of three plasma globs burst out of his arm cannon and flew up where they were absorbed undamagingly by the armor.

"I can't hit it!" Mega Man said, trying to backpedal. "It's too far. I can't get a line-to-sight. His body's in the way." He tried jumping up and firing, changing the angle. The plasma shots were closer, but the armored torso absorbed the brunt of the energy.

It stepped forward, advancing on the little mice at its feet. Two shoulder-turrets fired an alternating pelting of laser blasts like machine guns, the chambers resiling back each time. The three cut around and ducked the blasts. Link stayed stationary, holding his shield in front of him for protection. He hadn't done anything during this fight, and it frustrated him. No way would either his ice rod or fire rod make an impact on that sort of tank. It would be like one man trying to fight a castle. An actual, moving castle.

Mega Man bounded up and down like a leap frog, trying to catch the Wily-bot's head as it swooped around, but it never reached low enough to get a clean shot. It was too far up and too small for his tiny arm cannon. He needed more elevation if he was going to be able to take out the head.

Roll strafed left and right, firing alternate shots from her laser pistols. They were weaker than Rock's shots and having even less of an impact. She could see the puddles of light dissipating on the armor. And she couldn't hit the head either, its mammoth body was doing a good job of protecting it. She could see it, but the angle she was at wouldn't yield a clear shot unless she was yards away, and their only advantage right now was that they were so underfoot he couldn't fire shots down at them accurately.

The mecha switched to a more physical attack, pulled back its fist and took a giant swing with its blocky spiked arm, sweeping the floor. Mega Man and Roll jumped to avoid the swiping strike. Link rolled along at the floor, barely escaping the arm by pure luck as it lifted up from the arc of the swing.

This wasn't going to do at all. Link was a sitting duck, trying to avoid the crushing blows of the humanoid robot. And Mega Man was already weak from his fight before. Auto repair systems had fixed his mobility so he looked fine, but his generator had to be close to going critical. It couldn't take too many more of the shots Wily was delivering. She looked down at the twin pistols in her hands.

"Sorry, guys," she said to her guns. With fire in her eyes, she looked up at Wily's head, judging the distance and trajectory she needed.

"Rock!" she called out. She glanced at her brother, then back up at the head. "Get ready." She held up her guns.

Mega Man glanced back and forth between the guns and the head, realizing what she was going to do. He nodded once and took a huge jump back to get some distance, aiming his arm cannon. Desperate times called for desperate measures, including sacrifices. "Go!" he shouted.

With all her strength, Roll swung back her arms and threw both guns up into the air. They flew straight up at Wily's helmeted head, spinning end over end, and reached an apex just at its eye level.

Mega Man fired one shot with his cannon. The plasma globule zipped up straight and crashed into Roll's guns, causing one to blow up, followed in a chain reaction by the other. Fire swelled up like a bulbous balloon, erupting in a mighty explosion engulfing the mass of Wily's head and part of his upper body, shrouding it in fiery smoke.

The three of them held their hands above their head, sheltering from the falling embers of the blast spiraling down like tiny asteroids. A large creaking metal sound resonated as the mecha returned to an upright position and stopped moving. The echo of the explosion faded away, leaving eerie silence.

"Did it work?" Roll asked, staring up at the motionless robot. Her eyes darted back and forth, looking for a sign.

The giant head of Wily's robot suddenly hit the floor like a tossed rock behind them. Roll squeaked out in fright, whipping around and stumbling back a foot.

"Yep, it worked," Mega Man said, equally startled.

Smoke fluttered from the horns of its helmet, and prevalent damage marked its face. The eyes were empty gray now, and it looked like a ruin of a knight from ancient times that had eroded and fallen. Link dropped his shield, drawing his eyes from Wily's head back up to the robot. The smoke had cleared and the decapitated body's leaned forward. At first he thought it was going to fall on them, but the torso tucked back into itself halfway through and folded up into a square. The knees bent, and dropped to the floor. The torso settled on the ground as well. Now it was in the position of an inchworm with is arms spread out. Then it flattened out completely on the ground, spread-eagle.

"You disrespectful whelps," came Wily's voice from points unknown. "I'll crush you all."

The arms suddenly cracked apart, right down the middle, and spread even further apart. The legs did so as well, pulling up closer to the torso, bending in places a human form wouldn't be able to achieve, reaching up to the sides of the trunk The appendages, now eight of them, spaced out evenly, and pushed against the ground, bending in two new different joints unlike before, lifting the body up off the ground. The breast plate on the bottom slid out from under the belly, moving towards them, then back up and around to protect its back, or what was now its top. Where the head had been, now revealed two sets of bulbous red empty arachnid eyes. Two long pincer mandibles projected from the sides of the head. Wily's robot had just changed into a humongous spider-bot, with eight deadly mechanical legs.

Mega Man, Roll, and Link looked aghast.

"You fools," Wily said. "Did you think I'd put my brain permanently inside a robot four stories tall? That's not very convenient, is it? I'd never limit myself to one form..." He lifted one leg and slammed it down into the ground, shaking the arena. "When I can have it all!"

The spider-robot dashed in and out quickly, clicking its eight legs on the metal ground in conjunction, just like a real arachnid on a larger scale. It was able to dart back and forth on its jointed legs, and take fake swipes at the three of them with its taloned front leg. Red lasers fired out from its eyes, peppering the ground. Link and the others jumped in the air to avoid them, and continued moving erratically to prevent being targeted.

Mega Man looked at the spider's repulsive face, interleaved with eyes everywhere, and saw a blue crystal shaped like a crescent moon on its side, protruding out from the forehead.

"Rock," Roll called out. She had already run an analysis the instant Wily spoke. "The vulnerable point-"

"I know!" he shouted back. "You don't have to tell me!" he smiled back. The glint of that crystal was just too familiar. The power gems gave life to many of Wily's complex robots. It was the only way he could get something that large, that powerful, and that complicated off the ground without loading it down with a bulky and cumbersome power source. The disadvantage of using the crystals, though, was that they had to be exposed in order for them to generate the necessary energy, and often exposed in an obvious place That left a neat little targeting point for Mega Man.

Roll dropped back, seeing as now she was rather useless without her guns, except for her visor information. She could hardly believe Wily had made the spider's body surface area so small that he could hardly miss. Mega Man took position at the front, picked up his arm cannon and aimed.

"Oh, no, you don't," Wily boomed. With a snap movement, his right front leg reached out and picked up Link, enclosing him in its razor sharp three-pronged claws. Link's arms were pinned to his side and he struggled futily to free himself, grunting with anger. The arm brought him up to cover the crystal.

"Not this time," Wily said.

The thin mandible pincers jutting out from the sides of the spider's face reached across and grabbed Link's wrists as the claw released him, holding him pinned up, spread out like a hide being tanned, completely blocking the crystal.

Mega Man side-stepped around, trying to get a clear shot at the crystal, keeping his arm cannon and his eyes trained on his target. The spider moved with him, matching his movement step for eight-legged step, keeping Link in his direct line of fire at all times. The human was spread out across nearly the length of his face, so he couldn't strike anywhere without hitting him.

"Try it now," Wily laughed.

Mega Man's furrowed brows, loaded with determination, faded back to an expression of desperation. With his impotent arm cannon still up, he turned to Roll, who was wondering why he was just standing there, not firing his arm cannon.

"Doesn't he have any other weak points?" Mega Man pleaded. He glanced back and forth between the spider and Roll, fear in his eyes. "Any unarmored joints? Open areas? Anything to scan?"

Roll shook her head. "It's the crystal. Just shoot!"

Wily laughed crazily, changing his position erratically, bobbing his head up and down, left and right. "Why don't you shoot, Mega Man? Are you chicken? Ha, ha, ha. Lost your nerve? Come on, shoot me. Shoot me!"

Mega Man gritted his teeth. His eyes turned wide with realization at what had finally happened. Wily knew very well why he couldn't shoot him. Any roboticist would know why he couldn't shoot at him, and he cursed himself for not foreseeing this, for bringing Link into this whole cursed mess. He'd finally found an impenetrable defense, an unbeatable strategy.

"I can't! I can't do it!"

"What?" she asked. "Why?"

"You know why! I can't hit him. I can't fire without the risk of hitting him. I can't risk hitting Link."

"Then free him! Shoot the pincer arms!"

"I can't! They're too close. One misplaced shot could melt his hand. I can't risk it! I can't do it!" Why wasn't she understanding what he meant? She knew what the consequences to himself would be if his programming recognized that he had harmed a human.

"Yes, you can, Rock."

"No, I can't."

"Yes! ... you can," she replied with a sad, serious expression.

Why was she being so vehement that he could? She knew about what would happen, didn't she? Was there something going on here she was trying to say? Mega Man made a quick search through his programming to find out if his suspicions were true. Nothing.

Nothing?

Another search. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There was nothing there. There should have been something. Where it should have been there was nothing there. There was nothing preventing him from doing what he had to do. He was without the laws. He could harm.

He looked up at Roll, stunned. She bit her lip. Then he knew. She had it too. Or rather, didn't have it. Everything he believed about how robots should act, and the rules they should follow had been based on his personality alone. There was nothing preventing him from operating on his own, from disobeying orders, from acting without guidance. Mega Man didn't know why neither of them had the laws installed, why Dr. Light had done this. The repercussions of what he realized he was overwhelming him. This was too much for him to bear, too much for him to think about right now.

"Why?" he asked weakly. A simple one word question, encapsulating all he was thinking.

"Because you're more than just a robot," Roll answered.

Mega Man looked back up against Link, struggling against the shackles of his captor. This was no time for thinking. This was time for action. Dr. Light had said, every once in a while, great fortunate opportunities come, and it would be a shame to waste them.

Mega Man raised his arm cannon once more, aiming it squarely at Link. He reached down inside himself to his arm cannon and made some adjustments to its mechanics, fine tuning the blast, flattening it, concentrating the energy from a spherical glob to a precision beam. Mega Man was going to have to be more accurate than he had ever been with this. Too many shots with this configuration would result in his cannon burning out. If he had to shoot at Link, he had to keep it down to as few shots as possible. He had to take out that pincer with one hit. Aim small, miss small.

The spider-bot dodged and weaved, keeping the target shifting around. To Wily's surprise, Mega Man fired.

The shot hit just below Link's arm, creating a smoldering black scorch mark with a wisp of smoke emitting. Mega Man fired again. The fine-tuned shot banged against the metal above Link's hand. Another miss. That stupid robot was twisting and moving in and out, even shifting Link in front of the face, moving as randomly as possible.

 _One shot. All I need is one._

He fired again.

The plasma beam left Mega Man's arm cannon and collided with the pincer arm right at Link's wrist. The thin arm vaporized with the squeal of metal, mimicking the high squeak of an animal, and dropped away lifeless. Link fell to the side, being held up by one hand over the spider's face, still partially obscuring the crystal. But he was free, and that was all he needed.

Link stabilized his swinging by setting his feet up against the capturing rod, and grabbed something out of his knapsack at his waist. A bomb, his last one, came into has palm. He shoved it into the crystal, held in place by the cradle shape. Knowing his hostage just became useless, the pincer arm threw Link away out onto the floor without warning.

Link landed on the floor roughly below the spider's head and scrambled out of the way, grabbing his bow and arrow out of his holding bag as he rolled. Trying to get to his feet to get out from under the arachnid's range, he twisted his body around and nocked an arrow at the same time. He lost his balance and fell on his back, but he had the bow out in front of him and aimed.

"This one's for Zelda!" he shouted and released.

The arrow flew up, heading straight for the crystal and collided with the armor of the bomb. The detonation created an erupting outburst, shattering the crystal. Blue bits of glass spattered the ground, raining down like snow.

Thick smoke puffed out of the spider's face. It tried to step forward, but its leg buckled, unable to catch the easy ground, and slid out from under him, the body teetering from side-to-side. The other legs tried to stabilize but the energy drained away fast. The legs collapsed and the body of the spider with it. The whole of the contraption plopped onto the floor with a loud metallic clattering.

Mega Man and Roll ran up to Link, pulling him up and out of the range of shrapnel. They stood together, looking at the spider's defeated form. Its legs whirred as the energy was drained and flattened out. The armored back split down the middle and fell off on either side. An ever-present humming drained away at the same time as the red lighted eyes did.

"I'd say its been squashed," Roll beamed.

"Phew," Link said.

Suddenly, the legs of the spider fired out with ringing pops of hydraulic pressure being released. Wires and cords separated, springing out taut. The connections between the legs and the body separated. The thick cylinder that was the trunk of the spider screeched horribly as it slowly turned up on its end, showing a red occult symbol painted on that resembled an eye, gazing ahead to nothingness.

"Aw, it's never that easy," Link shouted with aggravation.

The crimson pupil of the eye flashed on and off, beating like a heart. The core body rose into the air as the light flashed faster and faster. In an instant, the cylinder disappeared, vanished into the night. Link snapped his head back, shocked.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha ha," came an empty voice in the darkness, ethereally echoing.

"What happened?" Link said as Mega Man stepped away from the two of them, looking up at the darkness.

"He's still out there," he muttered. "Somewhere."

As quick as it disappeared, it reappeared behind Mega Man's view, fading in from the cloak. Link pointed and shouted an alert, causing Mega Man to quick spin around just in time to see a volley of purple fireballs launch out from the eye of the core. The fireballs spiraled outward like a funnel, with comet trails tapering away. Link quick ducked under his shield, where two of them collided and diffused. The rest fanned outward. Mega Man and Roll, with no cover, were both hit with the plasma energy, causing a brief electrical discharge of their power levels. They grimaced in pain as they absorbed the fire, recoiling back. As Mega Man recovered enough to bring back his plasma cannon out, the core disappeared again.

Link dropped his shield. "What is going on?"

Mega Man sighed, "Great, not the pod thing again."

"He's done this before?" Roll asked, stupefied.

Mega Man nodded, his eyes darting around for the next appearance. "It's his new 'thing'."

The pod reappeared again, far away in a corner of the room. Plasma balls ejected from the origin point and percolated away. The distance was far enough that Mega Man and Roll were able to dodge the widely spaced plasma, and Link brought up his shield.

Mega Man waved his arm cannon around, trying to track where it might next appear from, but it was useless. Every ounce of darkness looked the same as the next. Another appearance from the left, a showering of fireballs, and disappearing. Mega Man was able to avoid the blow, but Roll wasn't.

"Roll!" Link shouted, holding out his hand for her, even though she was across the room. She took the full force of the blow, shorting out, flashing with electricity, and ended up on her back. Her brother helped her to her feet. Neither of his friends could take much more of this, and it was frustrating him beyond no end.

"Come on out, Wily. Fight for real! Quit hiding behind the darkness."

As if in answer, Wily silently materialize directly above Link's head, unbeknownst to him.

"Look out!" Mega Man shouted too late. The red eye emitted the spiraling circle of violet death. One headed straight for Link's head. Out of some unnamable instinct he fired his arm cannon at the incoming comet, just as Link turned around. The plasma shot went out fast as light, collided with the purple sphere, and deflected it away. It flew outward, away from Link's face and any harm. The robot core vanished.

"Whoa," Mega Man said as he skidded to a stop. "That's never happened before." Plasma wasn't solid so it shouldn't have caused any sort of deflection when two came in contact. He realized his arm cannon was still configured for a high yield shot. That might have caused the reaction.

Link jumped up, excited. "Mega Man, reflect them back. When he appears-"

"What?"

The core came into view, malevolent flashing its blood red heartbeat.. Link ceased speaking and ducked under his shield. Like rhythm, the volley of plasma fanned outward.

Mega Man fired at a plasma orb heading his way. The two shots crashed into each other, causing the trajectory of Wily's ammunition to shift back at an angle, fly up and collide with the red eye. It flashed with electricity, indicating a direct hit.

Mega Man pumped his fist in the air. "Yes, it worked. Everyone gather up!" He rushed into the middle of the arena to get the best view of the next showing.

"There's something very familiar about all this," Link said to himself as he rushed back to his side.

The three of them huddled together again, making one target, rather than three. Roll turned on her visor, trying to scan for its appearance. Maybe there was some clue that would indicate... wait.

"He's over there!" she turned and pointed up into the sky. Sure enough, Wily appeared there. Her tracker had caught a power emission trail zipping from point to point.

The volley of plasma shot out, Link stepped in front and crouched, holding up his shield to protect the two of them. From behind the Hylian, Mega Man fired two shots at the proper angles. They hit like atoms and deflected away, criss-crossing and hitting the core again. Brilliant light flashed outward and it disappeared. The plasma balls that Mega Man didn't hit diffused harmlessly on Link's shield.

"There!" Roll pointed out. The group turned simultaneously to where she pointed. The orange core materialized, and let forth its array of comets. Link shoved through to bring up his guard, thrusting it out against incoming fire. Mega Man got two again, sending them right back to the enemy.

The core suddenly angled to the side, as if something had gone wrong with its engine, and it was struggling to stay aloft. Tendrils of blue electricity danced over its surface. Flashes of light erupted in the arena, as smoke clouded up from the red eye. It looked like they'd finally done it.

"AAAARRRRRGH!" came Wily's voice. "You little... arrrrgh... I've had enough. I'll take you all down if it's the last thing I do."

The faceplate holding the eye, dropped off like a shed skin, revealing a gigantic cannon filling the entire space of the robot core.

"Enjoy your last thirty seconds of life, Rock."

"That cannon!" Mega Man exclaimed.

"It's got a neutron disruption engine," Roll said, repeating what her scanners told her, "It'll wipe out this entire castle!"

A low hum reverberated in the room, the sound of the cannon charging up. That was what he meant by thirty seconds. Mega Man would never have expected this from Dr. Wily, he always knew the scientist as a coward, one who always ran away as the fortress collapsed around him, once he was peeled away from his robot shell. Now that he had been transformed into that robot shell, maybe he thought there was nothing left to lose any longer.

Link leaned into Mega Man's ear. "Toss me."

Mega Man looked back at him with an incredulous expression. "What?"

"You'll have to toss me. We don't have time for this. Trust me." Link pulled the sword out of his sheath.

Mega Man nodded once, hoping the best would be the result. Without warning, he grabbed the back of Link's tunic, squeezed, and heaved him up in the air like a log.

"What are you doing!" Roll gasped.

Link sailed up like a rocket, wind forcing his eyes to water, hair blowing back against his face. He shot just past the pod, slowing down at the apex of the launch, and landed on top of it on his feet. The curved metal surface provided an unstable platform to land on, and his feet gave out from under him, threatening to drop him the same way he came. With quick thinking he stuck his sword in the metal like a pike and climbed back up on the top of the pod.

"What are you doing?" Wily asked.

Link closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing power into his sword. The metal of the blade gleamed with sparkling light, glowing brighter and brighter. Electricity started to wriggle up and down the shaft of the cutting edge. Thunder boomed in the distance. The crackling sparking of Link's sword overshadowed the overpowering hum of Wily's cannon. The sky darkened. Gray clouds formed over Link's head.

Link held the sword of storms up to the sky, tightening both his hands on the hilt. A thick column of lightning from the clouds struck it, feeding into the blade, giving it life, power.

With an enormous battle cry, Link plunged the sword deep into the pod he was standing on. Electricity from above and below soaked into the sword, giving it more and more light.

Wily's pod began to shake violently, trembling like a bomb about to explode, rocking back and forth. Cracks streaked down the orange armor, gleaming out beams of yellow light. The high-pitched whine of sizzling electricity culminated in a frying sound. Link let go of the hilt and vaulted off the pod, just as the machine cannon exploded in a shower of sparks. Link plummeted back to the ground, his arms and legs spread out like a flying squirrel. Mega Man and Roll saw he was descending and moved to catch him. They brought him in by the arms and pulled him back upright.

Smoke, fire, and lightning, rained down from above. Minor explosions ruptured out of the pod, breaking it apart. In a final rupture, an immeasurable explosion blasted from the core, bathing the three down below in striking heat. Smoke puffed out in all directions. From the cloud, a single body in a white coat dropped out, and landed on the floor on his back.

Groaning in pain, writhing like an upturned bug, he sluggishly moved his aged bones, rotating back onto his stomach. With pain, he opened his eyes, and put his hands on the floor to push himself back up.

Suddenly, a broadsword plunged into the ground in front of him, inches away from his face. The man's eyes opened wide in surprise, looking at the mighty blade embedded in the metal.

The sword yanked up, lifted by Link's hand, who reset his grip and pointed its spiked tip at the man's head.

"Dr. Wily, I presume," he said, glaring down at him. Mega Man and Roll came up behind him as well.

"Dr. Wily?" Roll said. "But your body... your brain..."

"Just a robot shell I manipulated."

"But we saw the blood..."

"A body bag full of ketchup," he uttered. "I couldn't do it. I couldn't make the program work. It was impossible. I tried and tried, but I couldn't figure it out in time. So I did the next best thing."

Mega Man replied, "You made us think you had put your brain inside a robot."

Dr. Wily nodded. "I couldn't follow Dr. Selkirk's schematics." He pounded the ground with his feeble fist. "I couldn't figure out how to make his vision mine."

"You know what you're problem is," Link said. "You never vary your methods, never do anything original. Every time you try to take over the world, you do the same thing."

Roll interjected, "The same disappearing-reappearing pod thing, the same robot masters."

"And every one is just based off of Dr. Light's original six," Mega Man interjected. "How many Guts Man copies have there been? How many Cut Men? Everything you do is stolen. You stole Dr. Selkirk's idea. You stole Dr. Light's designs. You stole Dr. Cossack's daughter even and tried to use him to do the exact same thing. Did you really think I never suspected it was you? Everything you do is stolen off someone else's idea. You could never create an original design. You're just like any other madman. Accurate view of the problem, insane view of the solution."

Mega Man picked up Dr. Wily's hands, and lifted his body up by them as if he weighed nothing. Roll gave him as set of handcuffs she had secured from the robot detainment center. Her brother accepted them gladly.

"Dr. Albert Wily, you are under arrest for various crimes against humanity," he said as he hooked them around his wrists. He went around to his back and shoved him forward. Link and Roll gave each other a knowing wink at a job well done as they led the troop out.

Dr. Wily, his hands bound in chains, rolled his eyes back, peeking at his captor and nemesis from the corner of his eye. "Nothing original, huh?" he snickered to himself. "I'll show you, Mega Man. Just you wait."

 **Next Chapter: Goodbye**


	61. Goodbye

"The famed Mega Man has once again made our world safe from robot tyranny as he brought in the captured Dr. Wily to the world government law enforcement offices. But this time he wasn't alone. Laura Miller is there with the story."

The screen switched to Laura Miller, a redheaded reporter with a blue suit. "Thanks, Megan. We're standing outside the law enforcement headquarters where Mega Man had just finished talking to reporters after delivering Dr. Wily for imprisonment awaiting trial."

The screen switched to Mega Man standing in front of many microphones and recording sticks, with camera flashes going off behind them. Roll stood next to Mega Man behind his left shoulder, mimicking the stoic face her brother had, while Link looked around at all the people and places curiously.

Mega Man said, "Dr. Wily has been successfully captured alive. I just handed him over to the proper authorities so they can convey justice upon him. His escape from Siberia was no mistake, there was no way it could have been prevented. He had a contingency plan in case of his eventual capture where he stored copies of robot masters with the powers he needed in an underground vault in Antarctica. The vault, and his castle, have been destroyed, of course. So we hope to prevent another occurrence of this."

One of the reporters frantically called Mega Man's name to ask a question. "Are you anticipating another escape by Dr. Wily after this capture?"

Mega Man answered very politically, "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance. If Dr. Wily does strike again in some way, I will always be there to stop him and his schemes."

"Is it true you had assistance during this mission."

"It is, my partners are right here. Of course, you know my robotic sister, Roll."

She gave a polite wave as more flashes went off.

"And to my left is Link."

More cameras flashed and Link made the same wave hesitantly unsure of what exactly was going on.

A reporter spoke up. "Is it true that he's a human?"

"Yes."

This created an amazing buzz in the crowd, and they started piping up like chickens. "Link, Link," they called out. "How do you feel about working with a robot?"

Link looked at Mega Man for answers. "What do I do?"

"Just answer any questions you want to," he smiled.

Link turned back to the small white stick being almost shoved into his mouth. "I feel just fine about it. Why wouldn't I?"

"Where are you from?" another asked.

"Um, Hyrule."

"Where is Hyrule?" they asked without hesitation.

"It's um... um... very... um... far away?"

"What do you do in Hyrule."

"Technically, my title is a royal knight of Hyrule castle, but I'm really more of an adventurer."

Roll jumped in, "He's working for an agency as an undercover operative. No comment about that."

"What weapons did you use to fight the robots?"

"Mostly my trusty sword. Can't believe it held up so well. My shield broke a while back, but I got a new one that's much better. And I used my hookshot a lot. And bombs."

"How were you able to fight the robots without a plasma weapon of any kind?"

"Well, fortunately, the magic came back into my rods, so I was able to use those just in the nick of time."

Mega Man and Roll were trying to stifle their bemused giggles at the blank faces of the reporters. They were trying to maintain their dignity with serious questions.

"Is it true you were at the demonstration at the robot detainment facility?"

"I was there. I broke it up, in fact. I can't believe anyone would try and attack Mega Man like that."

"Do you plan on assisting Mega Man in the future?"

"Well," he looked at his friend. "I would, but I have to get back to Hyrule. My people need me there. Just like you people need Mega Man here."

"Why did you decide to assist Mega Man?"

Link thought for a brief moment. "I could say that it was to return the favor that he showed me in my world. Or I could say that I simply wanted to explore this new environment. Or I could say I felt obligated to help because I was a bit of a burden to him through our adventures. But I think the real reason is, because he's my friend." He smiled at Mega Man, and he smiled back.

"How did you meet up with Mega Man?"

"He actually dropped into Hyrule by accident, helped me out quite a bit. And I came here, by just about the same accident. It's a funny story really. You see, there was a moblin attack in the village. Well, first, Ganondorf had manipulated some events and artifacts to convince us there was a fourth piece to the Triforce, and so-"

"Uh, no more questions," Mega Man interrupted holding his hand against Link to block him from the reporters, "No more questions, we have a limited timetable we have to keep to for Dr. Wily's arraignment, thank you very much."

The voiceover of the reporter vocalized, "After the interview, the three of them went back in and arranged for Dr. Wily's extradition. He's expected to stand trial later this month. Both Mega Man and Roll promised to give a full exclusive interview later after things had settled down. In other news, Titanium-X, a new lightweight alloy is making vast strides in-"

Mega Man reached over to the console and shut off the monitor. It flattened to a white line and disappeared. He rested back against the chair and looked over at Link, who was leaned forward with rapt attention. It was probably his first time seeing himself on video, interacting with people as he normally would. It was the first time he had been interviewed and broadcast to millions and billions. Mega Man crossed his arms and asked, "Well? What do you think?"

Link, still looking at the video screen said, "Does my voice really sound like that?"

Roll snickered.

"Um, well," Mega Man stammered, "The voice recording mechanics often add in interference and distortion noise sometimes," he lied. Of course, the audio reception was crystal clear.

"All they did was talk to me," Link said. "They didn't ask you anything," he said to his friend.

"It didn't bother me. I've been interviewed so many times by reporters its become routine. The same events, the same questions, the same answers. They could probably just replay a tape of my last interview. I've had my fill of them. How about you, Roll?"

She shrugged, "I didn't care. You know me, I'm not much for being the center of attention."

The door behind them opened with a quiet shush. Dr. Light tip-tapped the metal floor with the rubber end of his cane, holding onto a thick stack of paper in his hand, reading as he walked. His leg was still wrapped in a light blue covering.

"Dr. Light," Mega Man greeted.

"Hello kids, Link," he nodded.

"What're you looking at there, Doctor?" Roll asked.

"I've been going over Dr. Selkirk's notes, the ones they found in Dr. Wily's database."

"Those are the ones gleaned from the computer," Mega Man half-asked, half-stated.

Dr. Light nodded. "Yes, they are just amazing. Just amazing. They're a work of complete genius."

"So you can understand them?" Mega Man asked.

"Not a lick of it." He shook the pages in front of him. "This is complete spaghetti code."

"Spaghetti code?" Link asked.

"It's completely indecipherable. One line references another, that references another, that references another. You can't keep track of it at all. One part of code contains twenty functions that do the same thing, and another has one function that should be split into thirty. It's pure genius, but the notes are so muddled and disordered. There's no logical progression to it at all. It would take years just to set up an experiment that would test these theories, let alone actually implementing it." He tapped the edge of the stack on the side of a console, straightening the edges. "Wily really shouldn't feel so bad. No one could do what Selkirk intended. He was definitely on the shallow end of the sanity pool." He set the stack of papers on the desk and looked at the three of them. "Well, I just came down here to tell you that I finished working on the transporter and it should be ready to go."

The three stood up from the chairs, surprised. They knew it was inevitable, but like all things they knew were unavoidable, they didn't expect it to come so soon. "It's all ready to go?" Mega Man asked.

"Exactly to my last known specifications. I mean, I made it the same way I did before it was destroyed, so it should be an exact duplicate."

"Did you test it?" Mega Man asked.

"Yeah," Roll said. "There are a million variables that could be a factor here. It could dump him in some region of space. How do you know it's actually going to deposit him in Hyrule?"

"It will," Link said quietly, his eyes downcast. "I'm tied to Hyrule. It's part of me and I'm part of it. My destiny is in Hyrule, and I can't escape it. It won't let me escape. If I can't find my way back to Hyrule, Hyrule will find it's way back to me."

There was a moment of silence.

Dr. Light hmphed, "Well, I'm certainly glad you believe that. I wish you could stay a bit longer so we could investigate this strange phenomenon surrounding you," he said, referring to Link's magic, "But I agree with Rock. It's best for both our worlds if you leave expediently. Don't want to have a rip in the space-time continuum," he said with a jolly grin. "Do you have everything?"

Link patted his holding bag. "All I got is what I came here with, and that's all I'll leave with."

Light nodded and turned around, leading the four of them out into a hallway under the manor in the lab complex. Mega Man and Roll walked side by side at the back, Link treaded between the doctor and the robots. Dr. Light had performed many experiments on Link's magic elements in between breaks repairing the transporter. Every test had come up with pretty much the same results Mega Man had. There was nothing special about the scepters, yet fire and ice spontaneously formed and poured out like milk from a carton. There were no refrigeration coils or fusion generators like Dr. Light had expected. He could find no connection between what he was seeing and 'magic'. A more obsessed man would have imprisoned Link, trying to find out the secret to this power and to harness it, but Dr. Light was never that sort of person. He had no covetous nature when it came to power. His specialty was making robots, not magic.

"You've certainly had an interesting time here," Dr. Light said to Link, making idle conversation. "I'm glad you got to see a little of what my s-, I mean, Rock, has to go through in life."

"Well, that's all right," Link smiled. "He got to see a little of what I have to go through in my life. It was only fair."

The door to the transporter room opened and there it was. The same as when Roll and Rock had last seen it. A large hollow metal wheel, about twice the height of any of them, with a controlling computer attached next to it. Dr. Light charged in and approached the control box. With a few clicks and snaps of buttons, a faint charging hum activated and the machine turned on. The hollow space inside the circle turned into a shimmering gold surface, undulating rhythmically.

"It's all ready," Light said, and turned back to the three younger companions standing behind him. Link, closest to the circle, stood with his back against it, paying it no attention and facing his two friends. The three of them just stood just inside the room, looking around at the floor with small mouths, acting like three year olds waiting for punishment.

Dr. Light was about to repeat himself for fear of them not hearing him the first time. Then he realized what was going on. They were saying their goodbyes, and finding it more difficult than they had realized. He had no idea they had bonded so much with such a total stranger in such a short amount of time. He found even himself getting misty eyes, though not certain whether from the tearful goodbye, or how well his progeny's A.I. had developed to this level.

Link turned to Roll, trying to hold his head high, but struggling. "Goodbye, Roll. Thanks for everything." He spoke the words right into his eyes, then shifted them away.

Roll leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. Link's eyes opened a little wider. It was a powerful kiss, more powerful than if it had been on the lips. "Say hello to your Zelda for me," she said.

Link smiled and lightly nodded twice. He turned over to face Mega Man, his friend, his battle partner. There were no words he could think that would be appropriate after all they had been through. He held out his hand to shake. Mega Man took it and grabbed it, pulling it up and down. It would be the last common thing between their two worlds he might ever learn.

Link grasped him about the shoulder and pulled him into a hug. "Guess now we've got a bit more time to say goodbye, but I don't really know what to say."

"Yeah, neither do I," Mega Man said. No human had ever embraced him like one of their own. He just soaked up the experience, better without words. "Oh," he said, pulling himself out after an appropriate time had passed. "A little bird told me you took a shine to this while you were here."

He reached behind him and pulled out a white and pink cylinder with the words 'Fairy Juice' written in elaborate letters.

Link laughed out loud in surprise and happily took the can. "Oh, heh, thanks."

"Just a little something to remember us by," Roll said.

"Thanks," he replied as he put the can into his bag. "This'll be a great trick to play on Zelda," he schemed.

With one final sigh the Hylian put a hand on Link's shoulder. "I won't forget you."

Mega Man put his hand on Link's shoulder as well. It was hard metal, but more human than he had ever felt. "I'll always remember you," he said.

They released their grips simultaneously. Link turned around and faced the black and gold sea, floating there in space. His mind played over all the events he had seen in his time here and there, teleporting, watching ghosts, racing a hydroski, tunneling underground. There wouldn't be anything about this he'd forget.

He craned his head back, looked at Roll once, and Rock once. "See you later," he smirked.

With that, he bounded up and leapt into the portal. The surface rippled like water from the impact Link made. Dr. Light consulted the diagnostics on the computer readout next to the control panel.

"Transportation was successful, as far as I can tell," he said.

Mega Man nodded. The two siblings thought of how rather anticlimactic that was. Link was there and just has suddenly as he appeared, he disappeared. The void that he left was immediate. The three of them were like soldiers with no more war to fight, and returned to their points of origin. As in all things, an ending must come about. Time and people might change, the world will keep turning, nothing is static. But the memory remains.

 **Next Chapter: Epilogue**


	62. Epilogue

Link's boots pressed down into the spongy sand below them, displacing it. The tiny ocean-soaked pebbles resisted against his foot, forcing him to use more muscle than usual to push against the wooden boat. The slick surface was helpful though, as it provided less traction for the ship to rail against as he grunted with each heave of the craft Salty sea air sprayed against Link's face as he breathed in the breezy scent. He stopped pushing at the edge of the world, the neutral zone where water and land mingled.

He wiped his hot and moist brow, half-heated from the sun and half from the grunt work, and took a moment to look at the vast infinite landscape in front of him. The ocean waves slurped against the shores, like saliva from a giant mouth, eager to swallow him in. And he was about to let it.

His adventures and incidents through his own world, and Mega Man's, had shown him that the peace in Hyrule was precarious at best. Ganondorf was still out there, evil was still out there. And it would never rest. Even if the goddesses hadn't made a mistake, allowing the keeper of power infinitesimal time, another malevolent force would rear its ugly head and bring chaos on the order of the kingdom. There was always some price to pay for peace, and living under the constant threat of evil was the debt to be paid. The people of Hyrule were worried what would happen next, what would be the next threat. And, in truth, Link was the same way.

But if evil would never rest, then neither would he. He would never stop his vigilance over the safety of the kingdom he'd grown a new appreciation for. He'd seen how easily it could all be wiped out with just a flick of the wrist, and he couldn't let that happen by his own inactivity. Just because there were no looming perils to the kingdom didn't mean he couldn't prepare for them. And preparation meant venturing beyond the borders of Hyrule.

He wasn't about to stay there, stuck in his ways and the traditions of the people. The culture that didn't change was a culture that wouldn't last very long. Though he would never say it to their faces, the lands and people of the kingdom were holding him back, constricting him, preventing him from self-actualization. The bordered land had become constrictive, and he realized he had learned all he could from the country. Even he felt, in some small part, guilty of their traditionalist views, and his reaction to learning the legacy of his past and his future had shown him that if he was going to learn anymore, he would have to explore new lands and new ideas. He was not ready for the dangers Hyrule was about to face. He had to seek enlightenment and perspective, and as much as he hated to leave Hyrule, he would find no answers in it. If Mega Man had taught him anything, there were more people and things out there in the world than grains of sand on this beach.

Before he gave one more irrevocable push of the boat into the waves he did a mental check, making sure he had remembered everything he would need. A month's worth of food and supplies was stored in a compartment in the bottom of the craft, stocked to the maximum space allowable. If there was a leak, they would likely be ruined, but room was limited on a sailboat meant for one person. He wasn't very concerned though. It was built sturdy with wood from the mysterious forest. At the stern was a rudder he could manipulate with one hand from the main deck, well, the only deck, while he could control the sail with the other. The center of the boat had a pole stuck around a strong, solid base that flew one big sail decorated with the ancient scribe for wind. It was already flapping in the airstream, excited to get out into the open space.

Link turned around and looked back behind him at Hyrule Castle. Somehow, over the mountains and desert, he could still see the country's citadel in shadow, the hub of Hyrule, the ever-seeing eye looking out at all the sections it governed. The tall lookout spire in the middle was the most noticeable. Zelda was probably looking out from it right now, like a sailor's wife at the lighthouse. He mentally said goodbye to her one last time and shoved his boat into the water, quickly jumping in.

Zelda was at the tallest spire of the castle, looking out into the direction of the sea from the balcony, alone and solitary. Her long blond hair trailed behind her, played with in the fingers of the wind, the same wind that was carrying Link away from her. She stared motionless, her face unsmiling, with her hands at her sides, stuck like a statue at the apex of the castle.

She kept telling herself that Link did what he had to do. And that he was doing it for the good of the country. The same country she'd sworn to uphold as well. It was inevitable that their lives were separated by their roles, but connected by the powers of the Triforce, beyond anything they could comprehend. But all that philosophical thinking was the furthest thing from her mind at this point. All she could think about was Link. And that maybe, she should have told him how she felt before she left. But she lacked Link's mark of the Triforce to tell him, and her own had won out.

But maybe that was a good thing, maybe she should have kept it to herself. It wasn't proper for a princess to associate romantically with anything other than royal blood. People would talk. Authority would give way to gossip, and it would be impossible to get anything done, because no one would respect you enough to do it for you. The crown was useless if people undermined what it stood for. So maybe it was better for everyone that Link ventured out into unfamiliar territory, intent on protecting Hyrule. Maybe it was better it was separate, and that would give her time to shut up her heart.

Her role given to her by the powers that be was so frustrating. It was like having a map, and then having it being taken away when you got to the destination, and everything suddenly becomes unfamiliar. You were never quite sure what to do when everything was done. When evil was defeated, what were you supposed to do after? How do you prepare for the next coming? What do you do? Let your role sit idle? Remain stagnant? What did the goddesses intend for them to do after all was said and done? Their plan was obvious - prepare for the next generation - but there was never any direction on how to execute it.

The legends always told them what happened with Link's connection to Zelda, but never said a word about Link's relationship with Zelda. Especially after peace had returned. That was the funny thing. They never told how the legendary hero was supposed to come about. Or about how he was connected to the bloodlines of the past. He certainly could not have been randomly chosen, the associations were too obvious to be so. What was it that made the link to the past?

Maybe the goddesses wanted to leave that for them to figure out. After it ended, their lives were up to them, how to continue the legacy. Maybe there was no guide. And maybe that was for the best.

* * *

"I have the apple you wanted, Dr. Light," Roll said, announcing her presence.

Dr. Light was arm-deep in the computer console of the transporter, performing some major surgery on it.

"Oh, thank you, Roll. Can you just set it on the table there?" he nodded to where he wanted the fruit placed. Roll did so and stood back, watching Dr. Light dip his face into the box, trying to see the components in darkness.

"This'll just take a moment," he mumbled, concentrating wholly on his project, two tools in each hand. "It's almost ready to test. Oh," he said suddenly, "I've set out the parts I needed to take off your battle upgrades. After I'm done with this, we can start on that. Shouldn't take too much time. It's always less time to downgrade than to upgrade."

Roll nodded in thanks.

Dr. Light looked back at her. "Are you sure you still want to go through with it?"

"Yes," Roll said simply. "All the time, I always wondered why Mega Man wanted to fight alone. Why he always went alone, when he could have had help from people like me. But now I realize why he does it. It's the same reason I had. He doesn't want to see people suffer."

Dr. Light nodded in understanding. Roll was fulfilling the wishes of her brother by staying out of the line of fire. "Very well."

Moments later, Mega Man opened the door to the lab and came down the ramp, dressed in his familiar armor. "Hi," he greeted. "I heard you were about to give the transporter its first alpha test. I didn't want to miss it."

Dr. Light pulled his wrists out and closed up the panel on the console. "Didn't want to miss it? Or wanted to make sure nothing weird came through."

"Well, that too," he confessed.

Roll gave him a sarcastic smirk from her position leaning up against the table with her arms crossed. Rock stood beside her, watching the center of the portal.

Dr. Light kneeled down to the control box. "Here we go," he said excitedly. The thrumming of the machine brought to life reverberated against the metal walls. A brief flash of electricity flared against the metal circle and the black and gold shimmer appeared like a window screen.

"Readouts normal," Dr. Light said, glancing between the beautiful swelling surface and the computer monitor scrolling through lines of text. "I/O nominal... power output good, network flow good..." His eyes moved back and forth rapidly. "What th'?" he suddenly said.

Roll and Mega Man jumped out of the lazy poses and looked at Dr. Light for answers.

He looked up at the portal. "Something's coming through!"

The three of them all looked at the vortex, which suddenly pulsated like a heartbeat, ready to spit out something. A man bounded out of the curtain, wearing red overalls and a blue shirt, topped with a cap. He was very stout, and had a big bushy mustache. With a flourish he landed on his stubby legs and held his arms up.

"It's-a me! Mario!"

"OH NO!"

 ** THE END **


	63. Author's Notes, Thanks, and Trivia

I want to preface this by giving a very special thanks to everyone who enabled me to write this story. Thanks to blondie91, my first reviewer, and da marshmallow, Grey-X, Dragon Man 180, linkmaster2832, eventyraren who have been reading and reviewing since the beginning, and all the reviewers in between who just popped a note of appreciation. You guys are the reason I'm motivated to write in the first place. Also special thanks to my wife and my parents who didn't really help with the story at all, and frankly don't like to read this stuff, but without which, I would not be here. Also a special thanks to all the websites who freely offered data on these two great series that gave me the information to make this the story that was.

This story was started in 1995. That's two years after Link's Awakening and Mega Man 6. No, I'm not slow, I just took some very long breaks, which is why the first handful of chapters were very crappy and the rest were just regular crappy. This was what I intended to write after my Quake story. I wanted to try something less dark and serialized, an experiment for me. I've found that if I can just make the story long and meandering, it might be good. With no direction on where the story was going, I got up to chapter 4 in 1997, at a rate of about a chapter a Istopped and wrote most of the other stories you see on my profile. It wasn't until I got a (real) job in 2003 that I picked it back up again, so I had something to do at work during down time. I completed all the chapters at once, before publishing any, so I wouldn't be caught in a writer's block and have everyone forget the story and lose interest.

And now trivia and "behind-the-scenes" stuff:

-In chapter 12, the guard questions why Buzzy looks so short. Link replies "He's been sick," which has been a favorite line of mine in old cartoons and such.

-Originally, Link's prophetic dream sent him to the desert, (this was before I put it down for six years).Later, this didn't make sense for where I needed the lost woods to be. Plus moblins don't live in the desert. You can see they stick to wooded areas in most of the Zelda games.

-Noktwor's name comes from part of the magic spell in "Willow".

-In chapter 51, "Robot Fighting Time" was the catchphrase of the old show "Battlebots", where homemade mechanical robots fought against each other.

-In chapter 44, Link's civilan outfit is based on his clothes in "The Wind Waker".

-The RJ-202 Metonicle is the same name of one of the mechaniloids in Mega Man X (the big green one you fight in Sting Chameleon's stage).

-In Chapter 39, Link watches a TV clip regarding "The Rag Dogs". See my other story "ZerOthello" for an easter egg regarding this.

-Frankenstein and Pinnochio are two books featured prominently in Short Circuit 2, a movie about a robot trying to fit in with humans.

-The plasma cutter also shows up in Short Circuit 2, where it is used for cutting three-feet of titanium steel alloy. I think it's a fictional device, but who knows by now.

-Mega Man's rise after he emerges from the portal in Chapter 33 is meant to be like "The Terminator".

-"We are the reinforcements" comes from Vagrant Story, a favorite video game of mine.

-Chapter 39 makes a reference to the Creative Commons license. In the future, any creative work made by an author no longer living is put under this license, where it is free for use, making copyright infringement a thing of the past (I can dream).

-I think most of signs on Grizzled Jack's cabin ("Go Away! This means you!") are lifted from "The Wizard of Oz".

-The quote "I waste no time, only stalfos" comes from the game Worms.

-If you hit a chicken with your sword a lot of times (around forty, I think), a whole bunch of chickens will come and attack you. Link is scared of chickens because of this, just like David Boreanaz. I didn't really put it in there for that reason, just a coincidence.

-Link mentions "a rhino's bargain" in a metaphor. This comes from a quote from Magic: The Gathering.

-Captain Horatio's name comes from Captain Horatio Hornblower. Quite honestly I have no idea what that means, I just needed a quick pirate name.

-When Roll is being pursued by the Yellow Devil, the sound "Doom, Doom, Doom" reverberates in the space station. This is a reference to Lord of the Rings, when the Balrog comes upon them in the Mines of Moria.

-Impa is named for the Impa from Legend of Zelda: The Adventures of Link, who was Zelda's nursemaid (this is probably where Impa in Ocarina of Time came from too, but they are all different characters).

-Throughout the story, there are many parallels between Link's world and Mega Man's world. For example, sources of energy (energy cores/potions), one-eyed enemies (cyclops/yellow devil), power-hungry super villains, etc. Can you spot anymore?

-In chapter 7, I mention the spiral of shame. This is lifted from Final Fantasy X (Spira).

-In chapter 25, Link tries opening a locked door with brute force, by slamming into it. I wrote that because, who hasn't been frustrated by constantly coming up to a door and hammering it with your sword in frustration?

-Carbonated caramel water is cola.

-In chapter 25, there is a quote about someone watching over someone "like a loving parent over a sleeping child". This is a quote from Magic: The Gathering, and also shows up in my original story "The Heretic".

-In chapter 48, someone is named Funaking. This is a homage to Inafune, director of Mega Man.

-Who is the voice that talks to Link in the chamber of history? Is it Kaepora Gaebora, the owl? The gods themselves? The mask salesman?

-In chapter 27, someone says "some whirlwind dropped him here". This is an obvious reference to the original Legend of Zelda, and the warping whistle.

-In chapter 43, there is the mention of Kaufman Cabs and the South Point Mall. Both of these are references to Grand Theft Auto.

-The gold/black shimmering pattern of the gate portals is exactly the same as the portals in Quake.

-In chapter 33, Link mentions he feels "frozen on the inside, but burning on the inside." This is a reference to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

-In chapter 34, Mega Man tackles some small helicopter robots. These are based on a design from Teenage Mutant Turtles 2: The Arcade Game.

-"The way through is shut" is lifted from Lord of the Rings.

-In chapter 9, one of the passwords suggested is "Chris sent me". This is a homage to Chris Houlihan, a contest winner who had a secret room named after him in Link to the Past.

-In chapter 36, there is a character named Reno. This is named after a character in Final Fantasy 7.

-I don't believe there's a real drink called the "Fuzzbump", but it comes from the game "The Kingdom of Loathing", a browser-based comedy MMORPG. The "continuum transfunctioner" in chapter 45 is also from this game.

-According to various sources, Mega Man is actually 132 cm tall (4'4") and his weight is 105 kg (231 lbs.). For the purposes of this story, his height was increased to be the same as Link's - 5'6" (the average height of a Japanese male). Mega Man is actually slightly taller with his helmet.

-Zelda talks about being surrounded by "frickin' idiots", this is a direct homage to Austin Powers.

-In chapter 56, the lights turn blue, not green, because that is the way it is in Japan. Those of you who've played Resident Evil 2 see this quite prominently.

-In chapter 30, someone says "There is no knowledge, that is not power". This is another reference to Mortal Kombat (specifically, MK3).

-Throughout the story there are several references to Garfield, Ninja Turtles, the unabomber, and Homestar Runner. See if you can spot them.

-Roll talks about the advances in A.I. that have forced robots into slavery. She says "they made us too fast, too quick, and too many". This is from the movie A.I. which is also about robots.

-In chapter 11, Mega Man says "Now that's playing with power". This was Nintendo's old slogan, up to about midway through the Super Nintendo days.

-Link's internal questioning at the end of chapter 1 echoes the reflections made at the end of Mega Man X.

-In chapter 13, someone mentions Romani steak. It appears that the Termina ranch has branched out into more than just milk!

-Link's inventory throughout the story: a few magic bottles, boomerang, lantern, sack for magic powder, fire rod, ice rod, hookshot, bombs (obtained in chapter 7), fairy in a bottle (obtained in chapter 16), bow and arrows (given by Zelda).

-The news quote in chapter 2 is based off one of Isaac Asimov's robot stories, about a robot who went nuts because he had a strongly emphasized order to obey the third law, and a weakly emphasized order to obey the second. I always thought this was stupid because robots and computers operate in a very binary, on/off, this or that, way of thinking.

-"Licking main street" as a punishment comes from "Bruno the Bandit", an online comic strip.

-In chapter 41, the museum holds Rex, the first police robot. This is a reference to the Ninja Turtles cartoon.

-I contemplated putting Dr. Kossack's and Kalinka's dialogue into Russian using the Babelfish translator, but thought better of it for various reasons.

-In chapter 9, Dr. Light soliloquies that the adjustment of people's social mores "takes generations". And it's a "time he won't live to see". This foreshadows the main plot of Mega Man X.

-"We got the tools, we got the talent!" comes from Ghostbusters.

-Poppleberry wine is from Fraggle Rock.

-In chapter 56, the space elevator comes from the anime "Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040".

-The Zephos train is named after the Zephos of The Wind Waker, which in turn is named after the actual Greek god of wind (Zephyr).

-In chapter 48, Hikari Enzan's raceway is obviously named for the character in Mega Man: Battle Network (AKA Mega ).

-In chapter 54, Link says "No one tosses a Hylian", an obvious allusion to Lord of the Rings.

-Finally, there was Gatecrash Jams. As anyone knows of my other writings, most of my major written workshave a soundtrack associated with them. I downloaded a whole bunch of music from OverclockedRemix and VGmix during the time of writing to help inspire me. I selected some of the best (along with two normal songs) to put on a sort of semi-soundtrack. Here is a track list and where you can find them.

1\. Rage - Back in Time  
2\. Stage 3-1 - The Legend of Zelda Theme (VGMix)  
3\. Project X - Mega Man 2 Project X2 (Title Screen) (OCremix)  
4\. virt - Blood of Ganon (VGMix)  
5\. dj Fezik - Wily, plz (VGMix)  
6\. Gux - Mega Man 3 It's Boss Time (OCRemix)  
7\. K Praslowicz - Zelda Fear and Sufferance (OCRemix)  
8\. Beej - Fragments of Gold (OCRemix)  
9\. Flik - Kakariko Prom (OCRemix)  
10\. McVaffe - Gemini Salsa (OCRemix)  
11\. Prozax - Wily's Ambition (VGMix)  
12\. Pixietricks - Prayer (OCRemix)  
13\. Game Over - Cataclysmic Clash (OCRemix)  
14\. CarboHydroM - The Imprisoning War (VGmix)  
15\. Destiny, TheWingless - Eutopia Pegasi (OCRemix)  
16\. Dr. Asuul - Dr. Asuul (OCRemix)  
17\. Sukotto42 - Blue Balls (VGMix)  
18\. GaMeBoX - The Fifth Season (StS 2005 Edition) (VGMix)  
19\. DarkeSword - Ancient Hero (OCRemix)  
20\. Ra - Sky


End file.
